


Journeys

by thinkatory



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: AU - Infinity War Delayed Two Years, Age Difference, Alien Character(s), Alien Planet, Alien Technology, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Id Fic, M/M, Nonnies Made Me Do It, Other tropes I won't tag so as not to spoil the fic, Polyamory, Soul Bond, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Starker Bingo 2019, Temporary Character Death, Tropes, Uncle Ben - Freeform, Wilderness Survival
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-30 08:28:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20094280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thinkatory/pseuds/thinkatory
Summary: Ah, a classic love story. Boy meets mentor, boy and mentor fight evil, boy gets trapped on an alien planet with mentor, they try to survive, only to realize the truth: they're soulmates. You know, standard thing.





	1. part i.

**Author's Note:**

> This is an unapologetic mish-mash of tropes I built a plot around. I left one trope untagged just to leave something as a surprise (nothing violent or disturbing, I promise). This is more romantic than I usually let myself get, but that's why the id fic tag.
> 
> This fic pushes forward the events of Infinity War/Endgame two years. Peter is eighteen and still at Midtown at the start of the fic.
> 
> Thanks to FeyRelay for betaing!

_ **part i. ** _

Tony lasts a whole three hours into the honeymoon without checking the tabloids.

"_Tony_," Pepper sighs, and grabs for his phone across the armrest of the plane seat, but he yanks it away and scrolls. "This is our honeymoon, we're supposed to be relaxing."

"I'd find it really relaxing to see what people are saying instead of just guessing," Tony says, and raises his eyebrows at the first article he gets a real look at. "Wow."

"The wedding doesn't affect our bottom line," she tries to explain. "So this is all just – "

"They're wondering why Hulk wasn't there," he says, comfortably deflecting. "We haven't seen Bruce in literal years, and why would we want _Hulk_ at our _wedding_? No offense to the big guy, I guess, but I don't think we had any chairs that would hold him. Or space for him at the front. Or the insurance to cover if he got all smashy."

"No Bruce. No Thor. It was a little Avengers-deficient." Pepper seems to have given in, just enough. "Can we just enjoy being together for a few minutes?"

"I'm enjoying being with you, and looking, I'm multitasking." He pauses as he clicks on another, sobering. "Well. Figures."

"What?" she asks, wary.

He restrains a sigh and shows her the phone, displaying an article: _Pepper Potts Wedding Dress Covers Soulmark: What Is the Stark Industries Couple Hiding?_ "You don't follow one tradition and everyone loses their minds. So you covered your upper arm, so what?"

But she looks sad, hunted for a moment, and he hates it. "Pepper," he starts.

"Are you happy?" she asks him directly.

"Yes," Tony says. "Haven't been this happy in years. I'm kind of annoying myself, to be honest."

Pepper is eyeing him. "Even though – "

"I don't care what anyone thinks about us being a traditional couple or not; I thought you knew that," he says, breezing right past that. "I've never been what you'd call a traditional person."

There's a pause between them, maybe one second too long, then she leans across the seat and catches him in a kiss, hand on his face.

"Can't wait to get to the hotel," he murmurs to her, smile tugging on the corner of his mouth.

"We've got five more hours in the flight." She pats his face. "You'll have to entertain yourself."

"Ugh, I don't want to watch any of these shitty movies. Wasn't one of the vows 'to love and to entertain on long plane flights'?" Tony checks. "I thought that was one of them."

"Of course you weren't paying attention," Pepper says, dry as hell.

"Of course I paid attention," he says, with a faint smile. "It's the only contract I can't make you do most of the work on."

"Whatever." She's hiding her amusement, and he always loves that. "Let's talk itinerary."

He sinks back in the chair. "Tell me we don't have an itinerary. Pepper," he starts.

"You won't be sorry," she says, in her lofty sort of way, and he restrains a smile as she pulls the list up on her phone.

* * *

The truth is this:

The space on Pepper's arm where there should be two letters is bare. It took two weeks after they'd started having sex until she finally took off the bandage to show him the jarring nothing beneath it, and another week after that until he had the nerve to show her the two letters under his, because none of it made any sense.

_Maybe we're an anomaly_, he'd said. She said nothing and changed the subject, and they'd skirted around it ever since.

He thinks about it every time he scrubs over the _P.P._ on his shoulder, though. He convinced himself over the years that the soulmark and the concept of destined couples was idiocy, but then he'd met Pepper and he thought, maybe, even if she legally signed her name _Virginia Potts_, this was it.

This has to be it. No one else tolerates him as readily without just wanting his money.

* * *

"Sir," Friday says, "Mr. Parker is calling."

Tony rests his head against the suit he's repairing. "Jesus. Yeah, fine, let's hear it." He keeps on working once the call connects. "Parker. We're good. I told you to take a break from big stuff after the Connors thing."

"I know, you said, senior year, take a break, do school stuff, but that was three months ago," Peter protests. "Sir, I need to come up to your office. Please."

Tony clues in that this isn't the sort of chatterbox conversation he sometimes has to shut down from Peter. "Why?"

Peter pauses, long enough to be noticeable. "It's kind of complicated and I'd rather tell you in person."

He's not stupid. "Let me guess, you're already here."

"Yeah," Peter concedes. "Can you let me in?"

"I'm in the lab. I'll let Happy know you're cool. See you." He disconnects the call. "Friday? Text Happy. Parker's coming up, let him through."

"Of course, sir."

He manages to get some work done before Peter makes his way into the lab and stops dead at the entrance. "Woah," Peter declares, audibly astonished.

"Welcome to the lab, kid," Tony says idly, and pulls up a chair instead of continuing his work. "I'd give you a tour, but I'd rather know what's so important you had to come all the way here."

Peter balks. "So I did my friendly neighborhood Spider-Man thing last night," he says, "and, you know, you go into warehouses sometimes just to check it out because there's always a chance you'll catch some criminals talking about criminal things in there, and I found a science lab. An evil science lab."

"Okay," Tony concedes as he grabs his cold cup of coffee to drink. "Interesting. Good to check out. Couldn't have told me that over the phone?"

"It's one of your people," Peter blurts out. "Dr. Octavius."

That stops him cold, and he sits forward. "_What_?"

Peter scratches his head. "If you want, you can look at Karen's feed and check but she said it was a facial match and that he worked for you." 

Tony exhales. "Friday," he says. "Access Karen."

A half-smile flickers across Peter's face. "You call her Karen too?"

Tony raises his eyebrows at Peter, but Karen speaks up. "Hello, Mr. Stark."

"Karen, Peter tells me you have footage of Dr. Otto Octavius at some kind of evil lair," he says, way more casually than he feels. "Mind sharing?"

"Of course, sir." The video gets thrown up on the nearest screen, and Tony leans forward to watch. "Eighty percent facial match at forty-second mark."

There Octavius is, right next to some kind of tall ring-shaped machine with a panel attached. Tony knows his best scientists on sight, no matter what anyone thinks of his supposedly hands-off approach. "Well, shit," he says, sighing, and glances at Peter. "Hey, Karen, send that video over to Friday for processing, would you?"

"Right away, sir," Karen agrees.

Peter breathes out sharply. "So," he says, "we need to do something."

"We will," Tony agrees. "Don't worry about it."

"What? No, this is in _Queens_," Peter points out. "I'm going."

Tony probably should've expected this. "You did good. Take the break. You have college applications and shit like that, don't you?"

Peter shakes his head. "I finished all those and I'm not going to sit back while someone plots evil in the middle of my borough, Mr. Stark," he insists. "I'm just not."

He eyes Peter. "You're not going to let it go."

"Nope," Peter says, and he smiles. "When are we going?"

Tony knows better, by now; if he forbids the kid from showing up, the kid will show up anyway. "Let me see if Friday and I can figure out what Octavius is doing there. Then we'll be prepared for whatever he's got. He didn't see you?"

"I don't think so?" Peter hazards. "Didn't attack me, didn't say anything, just kept working. Can we go tonight?"

Tony sighs. "You have the suit with you?"

"Yeah, of course," Peter says rapidly.

Looks like his plans are made for the night. "Then stick around. Friday, text Pepper that I won't be there for dinner. Then let's take a look at that video."

Peter moves closer to the screen as the video comes up and Friday starts to analyze it. "I wish he'd evil-monologued a little, then maybe we'd have a better idea what that portal thing is for," he says.

Tony gestures. "They don't tend to evil-monologue when they're alone. Friday, what've you got?"

Friday answers immediately. "Radiation signature in the room matches Chitauri technology."

"Dammit." Tony rubs a hand over his face. "All right. More alien hybrid tech. Cool. Let's do this. Friday, location?"

"Course plotted," Friday answers promptly.

"We're going?" Peter perks up. "Yeah, let's go."

Tony cuts him off with a gesture. "Think you can web-sling your way all the way there, or should we take a car?" 

Peter pauses. "Oh. Yeah. That's probably a better idea."

Tony punches in a code and the suit folds into a more easily carried form that he snatches up. "Road trip, kid. Let's go."

* * *

_The kid has a point_, Tony thinks as they approach the warehouse all suited up. Warehouses have that vibe of anonymity and mind your own business that villains love. It's a stupid movie cliche to check out random warehouses just in case, but here's Octavius shacking up in one with his hybrid alien tech, so he can't fault Peter for it.

"So I went in through that window last time," Peter says, pointing. "I don't know if he's got security on the door or anything."

"Friday?" Tony asks casually.

"There is a security system on the door," Friday confirms.

"We can do something about that." Tony glances to Peter. "Get inside. Karen's gonna do the heavy lifting this time."

Peter nods. "I should be able to get it," he says, probably making himself sound more certain than he is just based on that tone. "Give me a minute." He climbs up and slips into the window.

Tony waits only a few seconds before Peter speaks over the comm. "Hey Mr. Stark, I thought we might want any security cameras shut down, so Droney's doing that too, okay?"

"Good catch, kid." It's weird to think that only two and half years ago he couldn't trust this kid not to fuck up as far as he could throw him. He's still impulsive and probably needs the time on the streets, but enough mistakes in a row eventually teach you a lesson or two, and Peter's made his share to get to this point.

"Yes!" Peter whispers over the comm. "We're in!" He opens up the door for Tony and ushers him in.

"Quiet," Tony suggests. "You might want to take the scenic route."

"Right," Peter agrees, and makes his way up the wall to the ceiling. Tony follows Friday's map to the radiation coming off of the hybrid tech to the room housing Octavius's lab.

No one's there. Tony wastes no time starting to inspect the tech laid out on the tables. "Keep an eye out, Pete," he mutters over the comm. "Huh. Looks like he created some kind of alloy."

"What for?" Peter asks in a whisper.

"Hell if I know." Tony keeps looking, heading over to the thing Peter called a portal, and his eyebrows shoot up behind the helmet as he gets a good look at the base technology. The ring is new, but the controls aren't. "This is one of ours. At least partly."

"You have a _portal_?"

"No, we tried a teleportation device about two years ago, right about when Octavius joined the company. Didn't work. I scrapped it." Tony frowns. "Why would he pull this into a private lab? I mean it, the design was all wrong."

"Mr. Stark!" Peter whispers quickly. "Watch out!"

Tony turns quickly to face Octavius, who paces behind him, clearly trying to corner him. "Give it up, Doctor," Tony says, casual but warning. "I know you're messing around with stolen Chitauri tech, and that you've probably already sold what you're making to criminal buyers."

"You have no proof that I've done anything illegal," Octavius says idly.

"All the Chitauri tech was supposed to go to Stark Industries headquarters or the US government," Tony says crisply. "If you've got any, you stole it from someone. Probably me. Oh, by the way: you're fired."

Octavius scoffs. "I'm so far beyond the ridiculous projects you have me on at _Stark Industries_. The world will forget all about the vaunted Tony Stark after they see what I've achieved."

"Oh, that hurts my feelings," Tony says, and watches Octavius try to cut him off, conveniently stopping near where Peter's perched. "Are you feeling overshadowed? Is that your tragic backstory?"

"I came from nothing," Octavius snaps off, then an unhappy smile splits his ugly face. "Not all of us are handed everything on a silver platter and a silver spoon."

Tony sighs. "Look, let's get one thing straight. You can turn this around. _Right now._ Bring all this to Stark Industries, use it for good, whatever it is you've got, we can do the right thing, right now. All right?"

Octavius snorts. "I don't need your _brand name_, Stark." 

He starts to advance on Tony, who raises his armored hand. "Don't make me do this," he warns, but Octavius just starts laughing; Peter shouts, "Mr. Stark!" right before metal robotic arms burst from under Octavius's labcoat.

Tony immediately starts to blast at the crazy asshole, but he knows how to get around fast with those arms, and before he can bring out the heavy armory, it's Peter who corners Ocatvius with a flurry of acrobatics and webbing. Tony blasts each of the arms that Peter traps with webbing, even for an instant. "Get out of the way, you pathetic insect," Octavius roars, and Peter is just a split second too slow; Octavius slams him against the wall, and Peter hits it with a yelp.

Tony manages to restrain calling Peter by his name in the moment, then calls, "I got this!" He aims blasts in a row to get Octavius moving in one direction, then shifts gears to focus a beam in the opposite to cut him down, just trimming one of the upper arms before Peter's back in the fray again.

"That is _enough_," Octavius exclaims furiously, as a web grenade explodes inches from his feet.

"Oh, oh, oh, I have an idea!" Peter calls as he dodges blow after blow. "Doctor Octopus! That's great! I'm going to tell the Daily Bugle to call you Doctor Octopus!"

"I will not stand for this disrespect!" Octavius snaps out as he pursues Peter across the room toward the portal ring, and Tony realizes what Peter's doing in a flash. _Bind the arms._ He goes to the portal ring and starts to lift it, but it's insanely heavy.

"Alloy," Tony mutters under his breath, and puts some thruster energy behind it.

"No!" Octavius shouts from right behind him. "Not the transporter!" 

"On three, kid," Tony grits out.

"Gotcha," Peter says brightly. "Hey, Doctor Octopus! This is fun and all but I was kind of hoping for two more arms for a real fight, you know?"

"You're fools," Octavius says, tone rabid; he's totally lost it, Tony might be trying to rip hybrid alien metal alloy out of the ground, but it's obvious. Then the portal ring that he's half-holding activates and Peter shouts, "Run!" at the same time that he gets out an "Oh no," and a horrible force rips him off of his feet and through the ring.

A flash of colors bursts around him; he tries to speak but he's frozen, just watching the colors pass as he drifts, until there's a bright flash and he's falling from a great height into an unfamiliar forest with a sky of red and orange. His thrusters don't activate properly and he plows into a tree, another tree, and manages to temper his landing on his shoulder, scraping away light blue needles from a dark blue forest floor.

He's out for who the fuck knows how long. Then he wakes, and realizes.

"Peter!" he shouts.

"Mr. Stark – "

It's weak, but it's there, maybe a thousand feet or so, if Tony can get himself that far. He pulls himself up, drags himself towards the voice, until he sees the kid curled up on the ground in a heap. "Peter." He goes to him, reaches for his hand, and tries to pull him up, but Peter yelps and falls back to the ground. "Oh, Jesus, is something broken?"

"Think so," Peter manages. "Can I just lay here and die?"

"Don't count on it." Tony looks around, really looks around, for the first time. The trees are beautifully furnished with sky-blue needles, stretching to the sky and only letting in spare sunlight and glimpses of the red sky he'd seen earlier. He exhales. "Friday?" he tries.

"Karen?" Peter tries himself, much more shakily.

Nothing. Of course. "Great," Tony mutters, and settles down next to Peter. "How long is this gonna take your healing factor, Pete?"

"Uh," Peter gets out after a pause, "I don't think I've ever broken my shoulder before, so I dunno. Usually takes a day for my wrist to heal."

"Great," Tony repeats, then sighs, clapping Peter on the uninjured shoulder. "I got you, kid."

"I know," Peter says, sounding completely wretched. "Can I just pass out, please?"

"Just rest," Tony decides. "I'll… I'll figure this out. Keep your mask on."

"Deal," Peter mutters, and curls up on the blue ground.

Tony breathes.

_Figure it out, Tony._

He can do that. Maybe. Yeah, he can do that.


	2. part ii.

_ **part ii.** _

The bad news is that they're on an alien planet with no obvious way back to Earth. Luckily, Peter is in a hideous amount of pain from his shattered shoulder as they walk through the forest, so the shock of the news is probably dulled a little bit. It's just another crappy thing.

"But the good news: the results are back and we should mostly be able to breathe in this atmosphere," Tony says, "so you can take your mask off if you want to." He demonstrates by opening his helmet.

Peter grimaces, then yanks his mask off. "So," he says. "We're looking for cover, right?"

"Yeah," Tony confirms. "If we can't… maybe we can manage another night without."

The weather's been decent so far, mostly like a New York May, and nothing's attacked them. So far. Peter's about ready to just be eaten by an alien mountain lion or whatever and be done with it, but that's the pain talking. "Maybe. Let's keep walking."

"Peter." Tony eyes him. "You need to rest?"

"No," Peter says firmly.

"Are you being stubborn about this? Because, I mean this in the best possible concerned way, you look like shit right now," Tony clarifies. "So be honest, do you need to sit the hell down or not?"

"Mr. Stark, if you're going to order me to sit, just do it," Peter says, tired of the conversation already.

"Sure, make me be the bad guy." Tony gives him an expectant look; Peter sinks down to the ground, with Tony beside him. "I'm surprised you took this kind of hit, to be honest."

"I hit a tree at full speed." Peter takes a breath or two to collect himself. "Don't worry about me, I'll heal up quick, we can figure out a way out of here."

"Yeah, I don't think being here's going to affect your healing factor." Tony seems more sure about that than he probably should be, but Peter's optimism is a little damaged from pain. "Just tough it out." He pauses. "You need a distraction?"

"Sort of," Peter admits. "Like what?"

"Well, we have two options," Tony supposes. "We talk about what's going on here or we talk about Earth stuff."

"'Earth stuff,'" Peter repeats. "What kind of 'Earth stuff'?"

Tony shrugs. "Hey, you're the one who's all pale and clammy, you tell me."

"I can talk about what I want," Peter clarifies.

Tony seems to realize what he just said, and Peter smiles despite himself. "Oh, I'm gonna regret this," Tony says, with not entirely serious weariness. "Yeah, kid, shoot."

Peter thinks of Earth; he thinks of May, he thinks of Midtown and how he was already preemptively starting to miss the hallways in advance of graduation, and he thinks of MJ sitting on the edge of his bed, gaze far away as she spoke. "MJ and I are over for good this time," he says.

Tony doesn't seem to know what to do with that. "MJ. That's the girl."

"Yeah. The girl." Peter glances to Tony. "She knows. I thought that'd fix it, you know? No more secrets."

It's weird, spilling his guts to Tony Stark, of all people, especially when he might never see MJ or Midtown or May again. But he's got MJ's perfectly blank face in his head every time he thinks of his cramped bedroom at home. "She found someone else, Mr. Stark."

Tony winces in sympathy. "Sorry, kid."

"She didn't mean to," Peter defends. "She just…" His hand drifts to his left shoulder, his broken shoulder, where his soulmark came in a decade ago. "Found someone who matched."

That gets a sigh from Tony. "Pete. The mark doesn't really matter."

Peter goes silent for a moment. _I wish I could explain to you,_ she'd said. _How it felt. But I can't leave her now. I just can't._ "They bonded." He keeps his tone neutral. "We're friends, now."

"The real thing." Peter doesn't want to look at anyone right now, but Tony at least sounds surprised. "In high school? That's rare."

"Yeah, well, good for them." Peter probably would be able to muster something more sincere if he didn't physically feel like garbage right now. "I dunno. Can we talk about movies or something?"

Tony sighs. "I've been through plenty of women who didn't match me," he says. "Never bonded. Do I seem miserable to you?"

Peter's head shoots up in surprise. "You didn't bond with Ms. Potts?"

Tony looks caught. "No," he says, with a trying-too-hard casual tone. "The bond isn't important, that's the point."

He's _married_, he's happy, he's never felt the bond. Maybe Peter will be fine, maybe he doesn't need a match. _If you even get out of here._ He swipes past the thought in his mind. He's got to cheer the hell up or this is going to be a miserable mission. "Let's keep going. Help me up?"

Tony's eyebrows shoot up. "You sure?"

"Yeah, I can walk." Peter puts serious effort into a better mood. He can do this, he can be cool, he can be a friendly alien-planet Spider-Man who's funny and fast and not overwhelmed by school and college and girls while in way more dire circumstances than that. "Help?"

"Yeah, 'course," Tony says instantly, helping pull him back to his feet.

Peter flashes a smile, and nearly means it. "Let's do this."

* * *

Peter's shoulder heals about a day and a half after their landing, which is good, because they need food and Peter's way faster about getting it. The trees they've stumbled onto in this part of the forest, past the cave they've camped out in and over the small river they took turns bathing in, are tall with flat red leaves and huge bunches of berries the size of cherries. They don't die right away after eating one, and they're starving, so they stuff their faces.

Peter smiles at the berry juice staining Tony's mouth, at the weirdness of seeing _Tony Stark_ as a human scrounging for food like anyone instead of some huge symbolic figurehead who gets whatever he wants, but keeps it to himself. "So," he says, "MIT."

"Yeah," Tony agrees, wiping his mouth with his hand. "What about it?"

"You were younger than me when you graduated, right?" he prompts Tony.

"Not much younger. Seventeen." Tony shrugs. "You did apply, right?"

"I mean. Yeah." Peter would've been stupid not to apply to MIT when Tony was backing him, but he's still not sure about it. "I, um. I'm still waiting to hear back." Then it stings, to realize what he's said. "I mean, when we get back, it'll be a while to hear back."

"Of course, yeah." Tony sighs. "So here's the plan for today. Head east, mark our way back, see what we can find. Someone's gotta live around here."

Peter isn't so sure why Tony seems so sure about that, but it's nicer to think about some kind of people somewhere on this planet who might even be helpful, so he goes along with it. "Let's go," he says hurriedly, and grabs the sharp rock that they've been using to mark trees on their path and the several days that have passed on the planet scraping by with berries alone.

Tony looks amused, and stands. "Sure."

They walk for a few minutes in silence that, weirdly, isn't awkward. It's been days, just them and the trees and the little bugs that show up every once in a while, and Tony doesn't seem to mind being stuck with him. It's kind of nice.

Then the spider-sense hits him and he hisses to Tony, "Something's coming."

It puts Tony on high alert, then there's a sound of snuffling through the dense trees around them. Peter moves past Tony to approach the source of the sound, and Tony whispers, "Kid, what are you doing?"

"I got this," Peter insists, moving forward only to take a step back when the creature emerges. It looks passably like a giant boar with tusks, only with spines on its back, and it's a light shade of purple. "This planet is weird," he mutters, and before Tony can do anything, he says, "Hey, buddy! Uh, we're not gonna hurt you, okay?"

"Oh, Jesus Christ," Tony sighs behind him.

The boar-thing snuffles some more and stares at Peter, who just stares back at it. Stalemate, maybe. "Hey," he repeats, and approaches it carefully. "Are we cool?"

"Catch it so we can eat it," Tony says bluntly.

"What, no," Peter says immediately, not looking back.

"Are you serious?" Tony sighs raggedly. "Peter."

Peter squats and sticks out his hand to the thing. "You're a good guy," he says to the boar-thing. "I bet you could help us out. Can't pigs find mushrooms?" he directs at Tony.

"You think that thing's a truffle pig?" Tony asks, incredulous.

"You don't know, he could be," Peter returns.

"Let me get this straight, you want this thing as a pet," Tony checks. "Instead of our first real meal."

Peter sighs. "It's friendly. I can't just kill a friendly thing. That's messed up." The boar-thing approaches his outstretched hand, and nudges its hand against it. "See?" he points out to Tony. "It's nice."

Tony makes a frustrated sound, then the boar-thing starts to make sounds, not like snuffling sounds, more like… words. Peter's eyes widen. "It's _talking_!"

"You've gotta be fucking kidding me," Tony says wearily.

The boar-thing chatters a little more, then turns away from Peter and looks back expectantly. Peter immediately stands. "Come on, Mr. Stark, let's follow it," he presses.

"This is insane," Tony clarifies.

Peter flashes an amused look back at him. "Do you have a better idea?" 

Tony swipes an armored hand over his face. "We don't even know where the thing is going."

The boar-thing chatters some more, gaze fixed on them. Peter shrugs. "Well, I'm going."

"Fine." Tony gives in, and Peter smiles to himself at Tony's frustration.

They walk in silence again, the boar-thing trotting ahead with cheerful determination, and Tony says, "I can't believe we're doing this."

"You wanted a native, we found a native," Peter returns.

"Yeah, but I was hoping it wouldn't look like food."

"We're not going to kill a friendly guide just because you want pork cutlets or however rich people eat pigs," Peter says adamantly.

"You don't know that this is a 'friendly guide,' Pete." But he's starting to sound amused. Good. Peter's winning this one.

"I don't, but I have a good feeling," Peter admits. "I think he likes me. Should we name him?"

"Oh god, I knew you'd want this thing as a pet." Tony makes a sound that's almost a laugh. "What, what do you want to name him?"

"Well, I don't want to call him 'it,'" Peter points out. "How about..." He scratches his head, embarrassed at the thought. "Keith?"

"Look, no offense, but I don't care what you name him," Tony says. "Keith is fine."

Peter looks ahead to where Keith is snuffling away. "Did you leave any messages telling someone where we went?" he asks Tony, casually as he can.

Tony visibly tenses for a moment, then relaxes into his fake casualness. "Yeah, I always do," he says. "Pepper knows, so everyone who needs to know knows."

"Even May?" Peter's been thinking about her a lot lately, how worried sick she must be, how she's going to yell at him to stop being Spider-Man for sure.

"Even May," Tony confirms.

Peter sighs. "She's gonna kill me."

Tony shakes his head. "I know we're here now, but going after Octavius was the right thing to do. We couldn't have known to bring reinforcements."

"Yeah." Peter breathes out sharply, and takes a few strides forward to catch up with Keith. "Hey," he speaks up. "I'm Peter, that's Tony back there. Where are we going?"

"Hnn-ah-ka," Keith chatters out cheerfully, glancing at him before focusing on trotting forward.

"That could mean anything," Tony points out.

"Wait." There's light ahead, more light than is usually let through the forest canopy. Peter keeps pace with Keith, and looks up into the sky at the warmth of sunlight on his skin and the sky scarlet above them.

"Pete," Tony calls after him, and stops behind him. "Whoa."

"What?" Peter looks down, only to see a flurry of alien boar activity on the ground. They're carrying food and nudging young boars along what look like worn pathways further into the forest; they're on their hind legs pulling at a rope and pulley down into a deep hole in the ground. A well. 

"You have thumbs?" Peter asks Keith, astonished. Keith eyes him and says nothing, just leading the way through alien boar traffic until they arrive in front of what has to be a huge stock of alien food. A larger boar sits in front of it and chatters harshly at Keith, who grunts and chatters back until the big boar yanks what is clearly a basket filled with food with a bowl of water sloshing a little forward.

"I… what the fuck," Tony says, swiping a hand over his face.

"Be nice, we're getting food," Peter says directly, "and a lot more than just one boar's worth of meat." He smiles broadly, and reaches for the basket. "Let's find somewhere to eat."

Tony and Peter settle in a shaded part of the meadow, Keith sitting nearby as they eat. Some of it is weird, bark, parts of insects, but there's meat and vegetables that are like softer potatoes. Eventually someone breaks the silence, but it's not Tony.

"Hnn-ah-ka," Keith says, and reaches out in the blue dirt to draw a circle. He gestures behind himself. Then he draws a line away from it. "Hrata." He draws something, long with a fin and a few lines breaking it into thirds, and Peter stares. Keith goes on. "Vraga." He draws long lines with circles on top. "Birka?"

Peter looks up at Tony, eyes wide. "There's a spaceship."

"That's what you got out of that?" Tony leans forward. "Could be a shark."

"Vraga," Keith insists, and points a fingered hoof at Peter, then back to the line and circle.

"Vraga. That's us," Peter notes, then his brows furrow. "I think there were people on the spaceship."

"Yeah." Tony's looking at the drawing more carefully now, though. "Maybe."

"Let me try something," Peter half-asks before he goes ahead anyway to turn to Keith and trace the line between the circle and the spaceship. "It's a long way, right?" he asks Keith. "Can you show us?" He pauses, and makes some huge, probably ridiculous guesses, but whatever, it's better than nothing. He traces the line again as he speaks. "Go hrata? To vraga?"

Keith snuffles and nudges the basket, with what remains of the food, at them; then he taps the spaceship in the dirt. "Birka."

"Okay." Peter exhales. "Thank you, Keith."

Keith wanders off, then, and Tony plays in the dirt with a stick. "So, what," he says. "You have a plan?"

Peter catches his gaze and raises his eyebrows. "Do you trust me?" he asks directly.

Tony doesn't look totally comfortable with the turn of the conversation. Peter frowns, and that gets a sigh from Tony. "Yeah, I trust you, okay? This is just a lot, you know? Alien planet. Pig civilizations. That kind of thing."

Peter nods. "I know it's weird. But. I think this is our best shot, Mr. Stark."

"Yeah." Tony releases the stick. "Think it's safe to sleep here?"

"I think maybe?" He doesn't have a good answer for that. "If they were going to kill us, they had their chance when we showed up."

"You're really trusting, kid." Tony sits back against the tree behind him. "This could all go sideways on us."

"I'm not saying this is gonna be easy." Peter shakes his head. "I'm just… working with what we have."

That seems to be a better answer for Tony than the rest of it. "Yeah, okay. Are you gonna walk out of this with an alien language to put on your job applications?"

Peter laughs appreciatively. "Job skills: translating alien boar languages and pictographs!"

"I'd hire you," Tony says, mock-seriously.

"I knew that." He smiles, unable to help himself. "Want to go talk to boars with me?"

Tony shakes his head and laughs, astounded, right away. "Oh my god."

"Come on," he presses. "It's probably just going to be confusing for everybody and that's it. It's something to do, right?"

Tony shrugs. "You don't want to, I don't know, rest before our guide comes back?"

"I guess." Peter yawns, and rests back against his tree. "Maybe later."

"Close your eyes," he hears Tony say, just as he does so. He doesn't exactly sleep, attention still sharp on the alien world, but it's a nice break.

They get to the boars later. Not all of them are willing to play 'teach me your language,' but he still gets a few words. He's always been a quick study.

* * *

Keith doesn't come back that day, so they de-suit and sleep in the woods until he reappears in the morning. Peter sits up at the sound of Keith's chattering, and rubs his eyes. "Hey," he says. "Give us a minute, we'll be ready to go. Mr. Stark?"

"Yeah, I gotcha." Tony sighs and unboxes the armor, slipping it on casually as Keith watches with fascination.

"I think you're blowing his mind," Peter says to Tony as he slips on his suit, nodding to Keith.

"Nanotech's pretty great," Tony agrees without a shred of humility. "Are we ready?"

Peter nods, and looks to Keith. "Let's go to the vraga." Keith turns in the opposite direction after visibly registering that, and Peter follows with Tony a step behind. They stop at a corner where there's what's clearly a mid-sized cart loaded up with food, and Keith takes the rope attached in his teeth.

"What? No," Peter says immediately. "I can take that."

Keith looks up at him, confusion marked on his face, then drops the rope to speak rapidly, nearly too fast for Peter to keep up with what exact syllables are being rattled off. Peter puts his hands up, then leans down carefully and picks up the rope. "See?" he offers, and pulls the cart without any effort whatsoever. "I got this."

Keith has a wary look on his face, but he snuffles and walks ahead, which is probably the best Peter's going to get. Peter looks to Tony and flashes a smile. "Come on! Big trip!"

"Fuck," Tony sighs, and follows.

They make their way along one of the well-worn forest paths for what has to be at least an hour and a half until the forest finally ends in favor of a high hill with blue-green grass and tiny flowers. Peter troops ahead of Keith a little, curious about what's ahead, but Keith cuts him off with a "Pratchka!"

"He told you," Tony notes from behind him.

"Guess so." Peter smiles a little as he lags back, next to Tony. "So I want you to know," he says, "I'm not being stupid about this. I know it's a longshot."

"Yeah." Tony glances at him. "It is. But it's something. Better than our first, you know, non-plan."

"I think we might actually be heading east," Peter says, though maybe this isn't the time for a joke.

Tony rolls his eyes, but doesn't look too bothered, maybe a little bit amused. "The Iron Man roadtrip all young kids dream of," he says. "Talk to a bored Tony Stark about anything. Eat weird food, sleep on the ground. I think I can market this."

"I can talk to you about anything?" Peter doesn't know when he started feeling comfortable teasing Tony, but so far he hasn't been told off for it, so he's gonna keep doing it. "You like Star Wars?"

"Jesus Christ." But Tony's laughing. "Isn't this march to possibly nothing bad enough?"

"You've seen them, there's no way you haven't seen them," Peter keeps on, because this is fun. "You liked Han Solo, right? I bet you were a Han Solo guy."

"Of course I was a Han Solo guy," Tony says in utter amusement, "who the hell do you think you're talking to?"

This is a nice distraction. He doubles down on it. "I can't choose! I guess if I had to I'd choose Luke because I always wanted to be Luke when I grew up. Especially Luke from Return of the Jedi. He's so cool and serious."

Tony is laughing again. "Kid, you're one lightsaber shy of a Jedi already."

Peter is a little distracted by how steep this hill seems to be and keeping the cart level before that registers. "I'm what?"

"You're a hero," Tony says, and raises his eyebrows once Peter looks to him in surprise. "What, you didn't realize that?"

"Well, I mean, kind of," Peter hedges. "But I never thought of it like that."

"You're too humble." It's clear Tony doesn't mean it as an insult, though. "I don't get it. If I were you… well, I'd be like me."

"I just want people to be okay." Peter scratches his head. "You know? That's it."

"That's the goal." Tony claps him on the shoulder. "We'll get back there."

Peter knows. They have to, no matter what. "Yeah. Back to May and Pepper."

Tony looks away immediately, and his hand drops from Peter's shoulder. "Yeah," he echoes, and Peter takes the hint, moving a step forward to give Tony some space.

Peter and Keith finally reach where the hill crests, and Peter's stomach sinks. He glances back at Tony as he comes up behind him and sees the small mountain range just past the valley below them, and Tony voices it: "Fuck."

"Hrata," Keith says, matter-of-fact, and trots ahead into the mountain valley.

"He did draw a really long line when he told us," Peter says, tone muted, not daring to look at Tony.

Tony sighs, but he doesn't sound angry, at least. Peter knows this has to work, or it's all for nothing, and all on him. It weighs on him near physically. Keith's already feet ahead. There's nowhere to go but forward.

* * *

The mountain paths are clear. Peter wonders how often the boars pass through here. Keith seems pretty comfortable, though he keeps repeating _Loka, birka?_ when they reach higher points with no boundaries at the edge of a sheer drop, so Peter's assuming that's a solid _Watch out, okay?_

He's getting the hang of this language. Sort of. It's a lot of single words that cover big concepts, so it's not that hard. He starts asking Keith more questions as they go, though the higher they get the less Keith is interested in teaching.

Tony eyes Peter as he moves back next to him, and says, "Why Keith?"

It's a weird question. "What?"

"You named him Keith. Why? Who's Keith?"

Oh. That. Peter glances away, a little mortified and managing to hide it behind a carefully normal expression. Sure. "It's just a name I like."

"Come on, kid," Tony says, wearily amused. "It's something to talk about, just cop to it. Is it some nerdy reference you don't want to admit to or something?"

"Yeah, it's a videogame thing." Oh, Jesus, this is not going well. He focuses on the path ahead and clears his throat. "You wouldn't be interested."

"You're a terrible liar." Peter can't help but look at Tony, surprised, and Tony raises his eyebrows at the eye contact. "You don't have to tell me, but you really need to work on your tells."

"I don't want to get into, into personal things." Peter's tone isn't as steady as he'd like to be. "You know? We're just trying to survive out here."

"Yeah, that's fair." Tony shrugs. "Just know… no judgment. You know what a shitty and debauched person I've been."

He guesses that's true. Tony Stark didn't used to be what he is now: married, principled, heroic. Still, it's something he'd hidden from everyone. "Have you ever had a secret relationship?" he blurts out.

Tony considers that. "I've had people I've kept quiet," he says. "Why?" Before Peter can open his mouth to answer, Tony puts it together, and his expression is impossible to read. "_Keith_."

"You said you don't judge," Peter tries. "It was just… a short thing. And everyone would've told me it was a stupid idea, the whole thing, so I kept it quiet."

"But you liked him enough to name an alien boar after him," Tony says, tone idle, not pressing. "It wasn't exactly nothing."

"He just popped to mind," Peter mutters. "As a guy's name."

Tony dismisses the awkwardness with a shake of his head. "Look, you don't even want to know what I got up to at your age. Some high school fucking around is fine with me."

_High school._ Right. He's definitely not ready to own up to the whole truth about Keith. Not yet, maybe not ever. Tony might not judge him for being queer, but he'll definitely judge the whole thing if Peter admits to it. He nods, and turns his still warm face back to Tony. "I sort of lost it after MJ was in the middle of the Scorpion thing, we broke it off, I… needed a distraction."

"You're talking to the king of distractions," Tony says dryly.

Peter musters a smile. "I don't think I'm ever going to have a normal dating life."

Tony scoffs. "You don't know," he says. "Don't be so grim."

"I'm just not all that good at it, Mr. Stark." He sighs. "I manage to mess it up all the time."

"God. Hey," Tony cuts in. "It's not your fault your girlfriend bonded with someone else, for one thing. And this Keith kid, sometimes things are just flash in the pan quick. That's normal."

Peter realizes how stupid it is, this conversation, as they're trekking across alien terrain in hopes of any escape from what might be the rest of their lives on a different planet. But it's a real moment, so he gives in. "Thanks. I want to try. It's just… being Spider-Man and being awkward aren't a good combination."

"You'll figure it out," Tony assures him. "Hell, if I did, you can."

But he's _Tony Stark._ He's just Peter Parker. "Yeah." He manages to relax a little, then notices that Keith is directing them into a pathway that leads to a rocky alcove about the size of Peter's living room in Queens. Keith immediately moves to rest, and Peter takes a hint, settling down on the ground.

"I could use a shower," Tony says conversationally as he settles in. "A nice, hot shower, with real water pressure."

"I'd take a bath." It's a nice thought, and he relishes it, the idea of settling into warm water and letting his mind spool out all his problems until the urgency fades. But here they are, in their suits, a week and a half into a journey through the mountains with only two attempts at bathing in mountain springs and streams.

"You should get some sleep," Tony says, and sits up a little. "I'll stand sentry."

"Mr. Stark," Peter starts, but he stops himself before he says it. _You don't have to take care of me._ It's fine. He's just doing what a teammate would do. He sighs. "Thanks."

"Anytime." Tony flashes a quick smile, the one Peter's already picked up as a dismissal of further conversation.

Peter tries to curl up on the ground with any measure of comfort. He drifts in and out of sleep, especially as the cold of the night and altitude sweeps over the area. He doesn't protest when he feels Tony's arms around him and body pressed against his back, and the warmth is enough to help him fade into sleep.

The next morning, Tony's awake before he is. They don't discuss the sleeping arrangements. They eat what food Keith rations out and get moving.

Peter chats with Keith as they go, until from behind him Tony says "_Holy shit_." Peter follows his gaze and his breath stops in his chest. Just to the right of the ridge ahead there's what has to be the polished silver metal nose of a spaceship. "Let's go," he calls to Tony, and slips ahead of Keith.

"Erta!" Keith barks after him. _Danger._ Peter doesn't care, he can handle danger. This is important.

"Wait up," Tony calls, but Peter stops as he sees the spaceship, or what he can of it. It's huge. He walks along it until he realizes that there's a ramp down, it's _open_, and yeah he should probably be on his guard and prepared for a fight, now that he thinks about it. He waits for Tony to get closer, then Tony nods and they walk up the ramp.

"Shit." Peter breathes out sharply at the sight of the rotted humanoid bodies in the seats, on the metal floor of the ship. It looks like it was a crew of four, aliens of some kind, impossible to tell any details with the shape the bodies are in.

"Erta," Keith says sharply from behind them, pointedly not going up the ramp.

"We're fine," Peter assures Keith, and turns back to Tony. There's no smell from the rotting, which is nice, but the bodies are pretty gross, dark green flesh clinging to bone that isn't covered by tattered uniforms. "So, looks like we're not getting a ride."

"We can figure this out," Tony says steadily. "Can you ask Keith if there's any food nearby?"

"Um." Peter pauses, then goes closer to the ramp. "Hey! Querta?" He gestures around them demonstratively. "Around here?"

"Birka." At least Keith is agreeing, though he's staring with an incredible amount of mistrust at the ship. "Naha?"

"We're coming," Peter says instantly in response to the prompt to go with him, and catches Tony's hand to pull him along.

When Peter glances back at Tony, he sees a look he's never seen on Tony's face before. He thinks, possibly, that Tony feels like he's in over his head. "Don't worry," he says. "You can definitely figure out that ship. Fly us out. Something."

"Something," Tony agrees without hesitation, though it's not convincing. "We'll figure out something."

"Right," Peter says instantly, because he wants to believe that. He wants to believe they're going to get out.

They're going to get out.

* * *

The first step is moving the bodies, and it's incredibly gross. Peter manages not to freak out too much, but Keith bolts the second he sees the bodies coming out and hides at the other end of the ship. "He's scared of them," he notes to Tony, as he moves the last body into the pile.

"Of dead bodies? Maybe they're superstitious." Tony shrugs. "Who knows, let's get inside and work."

"You're not at all worried," Peter checks. "He's been pretty smart about everything so far."

"You can check in with him if you want," Tony says, "but I'm going to get to work on the ship."

"Yeah, of course." Peter pauses. "I'll meet you in there."

"Cool." Tony gives him a thumbs-up and heads towards and up the ramp.

Peter makes his way over to Keith, who looks up at him the few feet of distance. "What's wrong?" he asks right away. "Why are you here?" He gestures demonstratively. "Is it them?" He points at the bodies thousands of feet away.

"Erta," Keith says firmly. "Vraga trita Hnn-ah-ka."

"Your home." Peter figured out that word pretty early in. "Did they hurt you guys?"

"Erta. Loka," Keith presses. "Birka?"

_It's dangerous. Watch out. Okay?_ Peter wonders what he's really done to deserve a total stranger being this nice, especially someone whose planet they crash-landed. "Birka," he assures Keith. "It's gonna be okay. We're gonna work on the ship, all right?"

Keith eyes him, and snuffles before heading back to camp. Peter takes that as vague skepticism but acceptance, and heads back into the ship to find Tony, who's settling into what has to be the pilot's seat. "How's the pig?" Tony asks.

"Freaked out," Peter says. "Something bad happened with these aliens and the boars." He shrugs awkwardly. "Maybe I'll figure it out. But the ship is more important right now."

"Probably won't shock you to know that everything's labeled in a different language," Tony says. "If Friday was up I could have her work on decoding it, but it looks like we're gonna have to play a guessing game. Great." His sarcasm is thick.

Peter shakes his head. "So we're just gonna press buttons until something works?"

"I mean, that's the tempting thing to do." Tony sighs, and pushes himself up. "But the power's out. I'm going to have to figure out what powers this and how to get it back online."

"Oh." Peter hadn't expected this to be easy – it would've been ridiculous luck to find a perfectly working spaceship even after a long journey with Keith's guidance – but Tony's tone of voice isn't reassuring. "It's gonna be a lot of work."

"Yeah," Tony says, but smiles wearily. By now, Peter knows that smile is a lie. "We got this."

"Let me know what I can do," Peter says immediately. "I'm here."

"Right." Tony sighs. "Well, we're gonna have to start prying shit open, so that would be a start."

Peter frowns – spider-strength, that's it? – but doesn't argue. "Show me."

Tony flicks his helmet closed. The ship is huge, so they wander through a tight corridor or two. They find and note with relief the barracks and beds on the way, until they're near, as far as Peter can tell, the back of the ship. "Where are we going?" he asks finally.

Tony taps the helmet. "I'm registering power surges originating from this direction. The power's being generated, it's just not getting anywhere." 

"Oh, okay." There's a door marked in alien language in front of them, with a helpful spiky symbol next to it; Peter perks up, reminded of the picture on every electrical box he's run across as a kid. "I think this is it!"

"Looks it might be," Tony concedes. The door is fractionally open, and the panel next to it is flashing blue. "Fuck, okay."

"Got it," Peter says instantly, because this is something he can do. He gestures Tony away, a little apologetic at the gesture, then pries his fingers into the open slot to force the door open with maybe half of his strength. As the door peels aside, light pours out, and Tony takes a step forward into the room.

Peter hovers behind Tony, though he has no clue whether to be worried or not. The two-leveled room is dim around the pillar of light at the center, and a ton of flickering circuitry with blue flickering and pulsing material around it is all routed into the bottom of the pillar. He looks to Tony, who crouches down to get a closer look. "This is gonna be a pain in the ass," Tony says, to the point.

"Probably," Peter admits. "But… is it safe?"

"Hell, I don't know," Tony says. "Maybe you should go look for food or something, I'll tackle this."

That irritates him more than he's comfortable letting on. "Mr. Stark, come on."

"You're suggesting that it's better we're both fried by alien tech?" Tony shoots back.

Peter smiles. Over the past few weeks, he's learned how to disarm Tony a little. "I'm suggesting that maybe an extra pair of hands means you won't be fried by alien tech."

"Fine," Tony says, sighing. "Come on, let's get down there and see what isn't working. And how it works. And if it will work."

"Okay," Peter agrees, and readily follows him down the steps down closer to the pillar's base.

* * *

The biggest problem is that Tony can't weld this metal at all. Peter finds him some tools on the ship and Tony obsessively works on tweaking the suit until finally he can do what he needs to do. Great. The only problem is that takes half a week.

They keep working, and working, and working. The technology isn't like anything Tony's ever seen, and reverse-engineering isn't easy without taking it apart, and taking it apart would mean knowing how to put it back together, which Tony doesn't seem to feel comfortable doing. Peter gets it. This ship is their one shot out. If he messes one thing up for good, they're stuck here forever.

So the work goes slowly. Tony doesn't immediately let Peter start messing around with the mechanics, but he will listen to him talk, so Peter does his best to keep up with Tony's train of thought with how everything works and give feedback when he can.

The train of thought boils down to this: _I have no clue what that pillar is, but energy levels seem to indicate it's self-sustaining. If we can get the wiring in this place fixed, we're good to go._

Peter casually hangs out in a squat on the wall as Tony works. "Are we close?" he dares ask.

"Well, the power's starting to get further through the ship." Tony shuts a panel with a small shove. "But it's not to the cockpit yet, and that's definitely a key thing in actually flying a ship."

"Maybe something's blocking it," Peter wonders.

"You might be right. We'll have to get further in to be sure." Tony pushes himself up to his feet. "Right. Let's keep going."

"Maybe we should eat." Well, his concern is more _maybe you should eat, Mr. Stark_, but he's learned Tony doesn't really register that kind of thing when he's got this amount of focus going. "Back in an hour or so?"

"Nah," Tony answers easily, and leads the way into the next corridor. "I'm in the zone."

"I know," Peter says patiently as he follows, "but I think everything'll be a bit more, you know, sharper if you eat something."

Tony glances back at him. "You're mothering me."

"I am not," Peter says instantly, a little defensive. "I just think the work would be easier if we ate."

Tony sighs. "You're not gonna let this go, are you?"

Peter smiles. "Probably not."

"One more," Tony bargains. "One more and we'll go and eat."

Oh, he doesn't want to smile more, but he is. "One more, I guess."

"Great," Tony says, with cheer that's a little forced, and Peter happily follows the heavy footsteps of Tony's suit, turning a corridor –

And then his spider-senses go insane through the ache of his head as he plummets through red-orange sky, an ocean of blue trees rushing towards his face. There's nothing to sling a web onto until it's nearly too late, and he tries to make his way through the trees but they're too dense. He crashes into a tree and hits the ground, senseless.

Tony wakes him. It could have been hours or days. He blinks heavily, then the pain cuts into his consciousness as he moves against his shoulder and he cringes. "What…?"

"Kid, you've gotta stop hurting yourself," Tony says. His suit looks less battered than Peter remembers, and his face clean-shaven. "Also, I think we're stuck in a time anomaly. So there's that."

Peter can't handle this. "Oh god."

"Yeah." Tony sighs. "You have any punchy movie references to make?"

"I just wanna go home," comes out of Peter's mouth, and he'd be more embarrassed if he wasn't in so much pain.

"I feel you." Tony crouches next to him. "We're gonna crack this nut, kid. I promise."

Despite everything, Peter believes him.


	3. part iii.

_ **part iii.** _

Tony is ready for this. They make the plan, fast: head for the pig village, get a guide again, make their way into the mountains for the ship as quickly as possible. Peter toughs out the pain from his shoulder like a champ, even though watching him force down the cringing gives Tony mild chest pain. Poor kid.

At what Tony's calling the "reset" in his head, everything went back to the way it was. The trees aren't marked with the sharp stone anymore, the definite scruff on his face from his time in the mountains and the ship is gone, and the only thing that they have is their memories from the last go-round.

They have to figure this out before it happens again.

Tony's resistant to stopping to bathe, stopping to do anything – they can gather food and eat as they walk, even – but Peter convinces him to take a break to clean up. He sits heavily after his own attempt at bathing in the stream, and Peter bounds towards him, spider-suit slung over his arm, almost underdressed in the robot t-shirt and jeans he's been wearing under the suit.

"Hey," Peter greets him.

Tony sighs and pushes himself up a little. "Hey. Are we good to go?"

"I think so?" Peter turns and squints ahead. "I think we might be getting closer to the other part of the forest."

"Awesome," Tony says, and glances up at him, at his maybe-still-injured shoulder, then under the cuff of Peter's short-sleeved shirt, he sees it: the soulmark. _A.S._

His eyebrows shoot up. He says nothing. He stands up, uncomfortable for a reason he's not interested in exploring, and slips on his suit.

"Yeah, I think so," Peter says, easily following suit in suiting up.

They walk. Tony's mind is going even though he doesn't want it to.

Jesus Christ. He needs to get this out of his head. There are more important things than a coincidental soulmark right now. He's just never seen anyone with his initials before, it's weird, right? It's weird.

"So I think it might be a Groundhog Day thing," Peter rambles from a step behind him. "The same thing'll happen every time until we break the cycle."

"Hey, look, a movie reference I get," Tony says idly. "You know I know Bill Murray, right?"

"No way!" Peter perks up. "That's amazing."

"He's decent," Tony supposes. "Anyway, so you think if we take the same route we'll run into Keith?"

"Probably," Peter says, and he looks a little disappointed to be back on topic. "If we manage to be in the same area again."

"Well, we could just… show up to pig central and see what happens." Tony hates that he doesn't know how this is going to go. He hates spitballing. He likes having enough warning to come up with contingency plans. Oh, and resources. Resources are good.

He misses Friday a lot.

Peter clears his throat. "Have you figured out why Karen and Friday aren't working?"

Jesus, the kid read his mind. "My suit works because of the nanotech attached to, you know, me. Friday and Karen are AIs rooted back home, they can't communicate with us here."

"So they're on your servers somewhere?" Peter looks incredibly interested now. "And we just have access to them through the suits when we're at home?"

"Basically," Tony says. "You know, this is probably some kind of karmic lesson for me to stop relying on AI so much."

Peter laughs. "We've done okay without it, I think!"

"Oh, BS." Tony shoots him a look that's somewhere between amused and weary. "I got stuck on the settings I needed to weld the circuits in the ship. Took too long. If I'd moved faster – "

"Stop," Peter cuts him off with. "Even Friday wouldn't have known. You had to figure it out. And you _did_. So it's fine."

Tony glances away. "Yeah, I guess," he says. "But it's still annoying. Alien stuff. Not my specialty."

"We're going to figure this out," Peter repeats, and nudges Tony. It's a barely there gesture, but the familiarity of it startles Tony anyway. "So let's just do our best," Peter goes on. "I will, you will, we'll get out."

"Yeah." Tony watches an oblivious Peter as they walk, just for a few seconds. Peter looks grown, responsible, self-assured. He's been thinking of Peter as the naive kid he took to Berlin for a long time. That probably needs to get set aside.

They make it to the other part of the forest, with the trees with the flat leaves and berries, within a few hours. Peter is obviously focusing as hard as he can to recognize landmarks, but after an hour of searching, Tony speaks up. "We should go to pig village."

"Right," Peter looks disappointed, though. "It's this way. I think."

Tony restrains a sigh. "Sounds good, let's go."

He's so tired of trees. He's so tired of hunting for food. He just wants to order a cheeseburger and sit on a couch and relax while watching the Discovery Channel. He zones out as they walk, dreaming of a gourmet burger from one of his favorite places in Manhattan, when Peter stops him with a hand to the arm.

"Do you hear that?"

Tony shakes his head, but when he focuses, he can hear the heavy flapping of wings. Maybe it's stupid to be on guard – it's probably just a bird – but it sounds big, and it's coming closer. He snaps his helmet shut and looks around, scanning for life signs.

"There," Peter says in a rush, and Tony turns around to see five giant birds with brilliant red feathers and huge claws descending through the trees.

Tony readies himself, and the largest bird lets out a melodic shriek before divebombing him. He dodges, and sees Peter swinging away and trying to clip their wings with webshot. He focuses on the big bird and fires, again and again, but it's fast. "Jesus Christ," he mutters. He doesn't want to set the forest on fire. "Pete! Any luck?"

"This is a bad place to fight," Peter calls back, and Tony is aiming at his target just as Peter dives in his line of sight and gets swiped by one of the birds. He catches himself in the nearest tree and calls, "I'm fine!"

"Bullshit," Tony answers, but is more focused on getting rid of the birds. He hits the biggest bird and it shrieks again, falling with a heavy thump. Peter tangles one up in webs; the last of them all fly off shrieking, and finally Tony can breathe.

"Get down here," he orders, and watches Peter gingerly make his way down out of the trees with the very noisy bird all wrapped up. Close up, he can see that Peter is bleeding through his suit. "Oh, fuck."

"I'm fine," Peter says solidly. "I've had worse."

"I know, healing factor, but – " He takes the bird. "Let me deal with this. You rest."

"Mr. Stark," Peter says, warning.

Tony shakes his head. "You? Rest. I'll deal with this."

The kid very nearly huffs, but sits down against a tree. Tony withdraws a few steps into the forest and puts the other bird down with a focused blast, only to carry it back. "Lunch?" he offers.

Peter musters a smile as he clutches his stomach. Tony debates whether to say anything, then says, "We should take a look at that."

"It'll heal." Peter isn't looking at him.

"I just don't want you bleeding out," Tony persists. "Come on."

"I'm not going to bleed out – "

He sends him a stern look. "Let me check."

Peter pushes himself up, refusing help, and begins to remove the suit, his teeth visibly gritting a little as he tries. He leans against the tree and pulls up his shirt to reveal a large gash across his ribs: deep, Tony notes, but it could be worse.

"We're going to eat and rest," Tony says directly. "Wait for you to heal."

"We can't waste time," Peter tries.

"I don't want you bleeding more or passing out." Tony shakes his head. "Deal with it."

"Mr. Stark." There's something in Peter's face, Peter's tone, that Tony doesn't understand. He doesn't know how to ask, what to ask. He waits for Peter to voice it, maybe. "I don't…"

Maybe he needs prompting. "You don't what?"

Peter looks away. "I don't know. Nothing. I'm tired."

"Rest," Tony suggests. "I'll… try to figure out how to cook these. If the pigs did it without burning the place down, we can." At Peter's nod, he goes off to sort out the birds, trying not to think of how lucky they were to run across them awake and alert.

* * *

There's no point in heading for pig village. They don't have time. Before they get out of the forest, it's Peter's idea to make a basket for food and forage for supplies into the mountain. It's a stupid process, neither of them knows how to make baskets, but they've got a makeshift knife and trees around. Eventually with some determination it's Peter who winds together a large basket that loops around his back with a cover while Tony gathers as much food as he can from what he remembers of the pig village's rations.

It takes a day or two to find the pig paths towards the mountains, and they have no clue if they're following the right one until Peter spots a huge tree he remembers from the last time around. Thank fuck. Tony is wishing he'd paid more attention instead of just thinking about what restaurants he would go to once he was home, but the kid's on top of it.

"I think I mostly remember the way," Peter says as they walk. They're nearing the mountain pass now, Tony can feel it. "I didn't camp much as a kid, you know, but, um, I was really good at keeping track of where I was. I remember stuff. Landmarks."

"It's handy," Tony answers, and sighs. "So we know, now, what we need to do on that ship. We just need to get there. Quicker."

"I think we're only a day or two behind schedule," Peter offers. "If we cut down on sleep and move at night, we might be able to make up the time."

"No, we need to make _better_ time." Tony considers it. "Okay. We don't stop to eat. We're loaded up for a while, we shouldn't need to go foraging until we're up by the ship if we ration right. Less sleep, less eating." Peter's giving him a weird look, and he raises his eyebrows. "What?"

"It's just weird," Peter says, glancing away. "You're getting used to this."

"So are you," Tony returns.

"Yeah, but I'm not the guy who's been waited on hand and foot his entire life. No offense," Peter adds hurriedly.

Tony dismisses it with a wave of his hand. "Gotta survive. Gotta get you out."

"Us," Peter says.

"That's the plan," Tony agrees.

Peter nods, and worries his mask in his hands. "You called me a hero," he says. "A while ago. I mean. Last time. Before the reset."

"Yeah." Tony shrugs.

"It's just that I'm maybe not as good as you think I am, Mr. Stark."

Tony couldn't pinpoint when they'd started talking like this. It's been weeks, though, and it'd probably be unnatural if they _hadn't_ started talking about important shit. "Don't be stupid," he says, not unkindly.

Peter is silent for a moment, and Tony almost goes on to prompt him, but he speaks up finally. "When it happened, when it bit me, I was a stupid kid. I suddenly had powers and I didn't know what to do with them. But I wanted to help my family, so I decided it was a way to make money."

"Okay," Tony prompts.

Peter can't seem to look at him. "It was stupid. I realized I was really good at sneaking around with the powers, so I posted online that I could do private investigation. No in person contact, just digital pictures and emails. I had a camera and everything. So I took a bunch of jobs and a lot of shady pictures and tried not to care about the bad stuff."

Tony sighs. "Pete."

There's no point in trying to stop or console him, he's still going. "So one day I'm tracking a guy. I didn't ask why, but I think he was mafia or something. He met with some guy, moved what was probably a body, and I'm thinking, I can't call the police, I won't get the paycheck if this guy is caught, probably not, and we need the money, so I just keep taking pics and go." He exhales sharply. "I send the pictures to my client. I know this guy's face. That's why I recognized him when they showed me the guy who killed my Uncle Ben."

Tony doesn't react to that quickly, because it's a hell of a revelation. He looks at Peter, though, and shakes his head. "Hey," he says, "you couldn't have known."

"I could've done something," Peter says, tone forced steady. "A lot of things. But instead I let it go. For money."

What can he even say to that? "You've more than made up for it, kid."

"He wanted me to be responsible." Peter shakes his head firmly. "If I'd listened – "

"You were just a kid, Peter," Tony fires back, tone sharpening. He needs to snap out of it. "You know better, now, you do better. Your uncle would be proud."

"I just hate it," Peter answers, gaze shot away again. "I don't feel like a hero."

"Hey, I have way more blood on my hands than that," Tony says, and sighs. "I know it's hard to sleep at night when you have shit like that in your head. But you're not defined by what you did in the past, you're defined by the choices you make now, over and over again, and you've made the right choices for a long time now."

Peter falls silent. They walk like that until they reach the top of the hill, then Tony says, "You good?"

"I shouldn't've said all that," Peter says. At a glance, his face is pink.

"Oh, shut up," Tony says. "We're past that point."

"What point?"

"You know what point, kid." He catches Peter's gaze after his surprised look. "We've got a lot of time to kill here, and I don't mind listening to you talk."

That definitely surprises Peter. "You don't?"

"Trust me, you've been talking a lot," Tony says, amused. "If I minded, you'd have found out a while ago."

"Oh." Peter pauses. "You haven't been talking."

"Look, I don't have as much to say as you do," Tony says with a shrug.

"Just… you can talk too," Peter assures him. "Anything we talk about here is, like, it doesn't leave this planet. Okay?"

Tony takes that in, then glances away. The kid just dropped something serious in front of him, is he obligated to do the same? Is it an asshole move to just let Peter trust him with all of this personal shit without saying a thing in return? What is there even to say?

"Don't think you ever heard the whole story about the thing with Cap," Tony says finally.

"No," Peter says, tone gently interested.

Tony looks ahead at the mountain path.

"It's a long story," he says. "But we've got a long walk, so why the hell not."

Peter just smiles. It helps. It reminds him of the times he's woken up in the middle of the night with Pepper there to listen, the only times he's been willing to open up about anything at all. He's still guarded, but he tells the truth, and smiles unhappily but gratefully at Peter's soft apology at the end.

They walk in a more comfortable silence after that.

* * *

It blows Tony's mind how upbeat Peter is right now. It took them a week and a half to get up the mountain paths to the ship, barely eating, barely resting, barely sleeping, getting lost, and Peter's still chatting about pop culture and comic books as they go, even as they arrive at the ship and start moving the bodies again.

"Where are you finding all this energy?" Tony asks directly, as they drop the last body into a heap away from the ship.

"What?" The question startles Peter.

"You're… peppy," Tony says, and gestures for Peter to follow him back into the ship. "I don't get it."

"Oh." Peter shrugs. "I just want to stay in a good mood. This could get really depressing if I didn't."

That surprises Tony. He'd never thought it was a conscious effort. "Okay, yeah. Good work. I'm going to do the last tweaks to the suit and we'll get right to work."

"I'll go track down some food to add to our stores," Peter says instantly.

Tony eyes Peter, thinking. "Get back soon. I'll need a hand."

That cheers Peter up visibly. "Oh, okay. Yeah, I'll be back soon."

"Great." Tony nods to him, and goes to track down the tools in the ship.

The repairs go faster with two sets of hands; together, they learn how to dodge the squishy parts around the circuits, because they either zap you or make your hand go numb. Tony is hesitant to risk giving the tools over to Peter at first in case something goes wrong, then he realizes he's being stupid. The kid isn't him, but he's far from stupid and is actually pretty skilled once he knows what he's doing. They work well into the night reprogramming and patching circuits as best they can, with the slightest signs that they're going in the right direction, and even Peter seems to be wearing thin when he speaks up midway through a patch.

"Have you ever met anyone whose mark matched with you before?"

It's out of nowhere. Tony is tired, so tired, and he doesn't know what to say. "Yeah," he says. It's true, and Peter doesn't need to know that he's the first, or that Tony saw his mark at all.

"I've met two." Peter seems focused on the work, but the conversation seems important to him, too. It sets Tony on edge, for some reason. "I thought maybe there was a chance with the one guy. But no luck."

Why is he doing this? He doesn't know Tony knows. But that's no excuse. This is weird. "Just because you match doesn't mean you bond," Tony says, because he has to say something.

"Right," Peter agrees. "Sometimes it's just a coincidence."

Tony tries not to visibly relax at that. "Right," he echoes. "Kid, I think you get around more than I ever thought you did."

"It's not like that," Peter says hurriedly. "There was a thing going around Midtown. Put down your mark and get connected with someone who matched you. He matched me, I matched him, we kissed, nothing happened. Um. I thought maybe we should keep trying, but, but, um."

Oh, Tony can read a lot into the frantic way Peter's focusing on the work now. "Wasn't much more than a fuck, was it?"

"No," Peter answers, and barely glances up, too mortified.

"Here I thought you were a one girl virgin," Tony says, because needling him like this is a little fun. "Instead you're this adventurous bisexual. Good for you, Pete."

"Yeah, well." Peter's face is pink now. "I'd rather be a one person whatever."

"Be patient," Tony suggests. "Once we're out of here… hey, we can get you a girlfriend, boyfriend, whatever."

Peter's face flickers in relief and he sits back from the circuit a little. "I think I got it."

"Let me see." Tony shifts closer. "Oh, that looks good. I think. Yeah. Let's keep going."

Peter smiles. Tony knows he can't voice it, because it's weird, but that damn smile has been getting him day to day.

* * *

The clock is ticking. They see a brief flicker of power in the cockpit and Peter whoops and high fives Tony, who shakes his head in amusement and hesitation to enjoy it too much. There's still work to do and only days left before the reset, by his count.

They sleep in the bunks in the ship. It's close quarters, but the beds are comfortable and a lot better than the bare ground they've had to get used to most of the trek. Tony never manages to wake up first, and Peter's always sorting out breakfast when he checks in the cockpit.

"We need to do laundry," Tony says in greeting.

"Yeah," Peter says, and flashes a smile. "So. Any ideas for today?"

"Think so." Tony grabs two leaves and folds berries between them in the sort of sandwich they learned from Keith the first time around. He chews, then says, "We're going to try to crank the power from the source."

Peter coughs. "What?" he asks.

"I think when they landed here something blew," Tony says idly. "Massive power surge, maybe, but the power's still going. We've repaired a lot of the damage. Think of it like a car. It might just need a jump."

Peter looks speechless. "You think?" he says finally.

"The cockpit reacted for five seconds," Tony answers, gesturing with his leaf and berry sandwich, "but it reacted. It needs more."

"How?" Peter asks, hesitant.

Tony pauses, takes a bite, and chews before he answers. "I'm gonna figure that out today."

"Okay." Peter doesn't look completely convinced, but people have always doubted Tony. He… usually comes through. It'll be fine.

* * *

Peter is hanging upside down behind Tony casually as he works single-mindedly on the panel next to the power pillar. Tony almost forgets he's there until he talks.

"Are you sure about this jumper cable thing?"

Tony doesn't look back. He's busy trying to figure out what the hell is _what_ in here. "I think it's our best shot, yeah."

"Okay, but you said a power surge might've killed the circuits we fixed," Peter says. "What if it happens again?"

"I won't overload the circuits. Don't worry about it."

"Mr. Stark, please," Peter presses. "Isn't there something else we can do?"

"Nothing's blocking the power from getting to the cockpit," Tony says patiently. "We've looked at all the wiring we can access from the back to the front and rewired and reprogrammed half of what we found. So it's obvious that not enough power is getting there."

"I'm just worried something is gonna blow up," Peter admits.

"Have a little faith," Tony suggests, still not looking up. He can feel Peter watching him, but he ignores it. It's right in front of him, the solution, these circuits here that scans tell him branch from the pillar into the rest of the system. He digs in and ignores Peter radiating concern behind him, focusing purely on the problem in front of him, the alien system that defies understanding. He wishes he understood what the pillar was. That's what's getting in the way.

He slams the panel shut and starts hunting around the edge of the pillar, following the circuitry the suit can recognize through the metal paneling, until he finds a lever with multiple settings marked in an alien language next to a screen flashing blue.

"Tony," Peter starts, but Tony throws the switch from the first setting to the second.

"Check the cockpit," Tony directs, and Peter runs off. He waits until he hears a thin cry of "Nothing!" from Peter before he throws it to the third, then there's a whirr of reaction from the ship right before Tony's crashing towards the sky-blue forest again in a red-orange sky.

"You've got to be FUCKING kidding me," he fumes at the sky, and tries his best to land with the least amount of damage this time.


	4. part iv.

_ **part iv.** _

Peter manages to not hurt himself too badly landing this time. He's starting to think he comes through with a concussion, though, which is annoying and probably why he's in such a bad mood each time. He'd chalked it up to the major broken bones, but even when he just has a sprained wrist and a lot of bruises he still feels like shit.

"So," Tony says as they walk, in that not-casual-at-all casual tone of his, "we had an extra two days before the reset."

"Then you threw the switch and it happened." Peter manages not to make it sound accusatory. Tony didn't know. How could he have known? "So it's the ship."

"It's the ship," Tony agrees. "Somehow."

It's hard not to feel a little hopeless. The ship was their last hope. If the ship is the thing causing the resets, how are they going to manage to figure out how to make it stop before the reset hits again and they're back in the forest? How many resets is it going to take?

"Hey." Peter glances up at Tony, surprised at his softer tone. "Don't get that look."

"What look?" Peter's a little defensive. He doesn't like it when people can see through him.

"You're worried," Tony says. "Don't worry, we'll figure this out."

"I know," Peter says immediately. "I'm with Tony Stark." He smiles. "Who better?"

"Pete." Tony looks serious. Peter's smile falters. "Don't."

Better to play stupid. "Don't what?"

"You know what I'm talking about." Tony gestures at him in his flippant way. "So stop it."

Peter is only now realizing that for as much time as he's spent learning Tony while trapped here, _Tony has also been learning him._ "Maybe I don't know what you're talking about?"

"That smile," Tony says. "You pull it out whenever you want me to shut up."

Agh. He raises his eyebrows. "What, you don't want me smiling?"

"If you mean it." Tony raises his eyebrows in response.

"I'm not trying to be manipulative," Peter blurts out. "I'm just trying to… keep things upbeat, you know?"

"Sometimes things don't have to be upbeat." Tony glances away. "We can be real about what's going on."

"Maybe I don't want to be real about what's going on," Peter mumbles.

"I get that," Tony says immediately, "trust me, I do, but I also learned that even when you brush off the terrible shit, it sticks to you. Have to acknowledge it at some point."

Peter breathes out shakily. Maybe he'll be ready later. "Are we going to Hnn-ah-ka?"

Tony pauses. "Can you get us there?"

"I think so. I think I know where I messed up last time." Oh, he really hopes he can do this. The boars would make this all ten times easier, and if he can find Keith again… "Do you think they know what's going on?"

"No idea," Tony admits. "Guess we'll find out when we get there."

Peter nods. "So, um," he starts. "What're you gonna do with Pepper once you're back?"

He doesn't know why Tony always goes stiff when he mentions her name. He's trying to be nice, he's trying to remind Tony of good things, even if he misses them. But this time it's not as bad, and he answers instead of going silent. "All the normal shit," Tony says. "I don't want a vacation. I want the real world back. The company, New York, all of it."

Peter smiles, just a little. He gets that. "Yeah. Normal would be nice."

"But I've got a list of everything I'm going to eat once I'm back in my head," Tony informs him, mock-seriously.

"Tell me all about it," Peter prompts him, grinning.

Tony laughs, and starts to rattle off food. Most of it Peter recognizes, but some is clearly rich people fare. Right as Tony's winding down, there's rustling through the trees and snuffling, and Peter perks up. "Wait!"

"Moment of truth," Tony mutters.

A group of boars moves through the trees, and Peter feels Tony tense beside him, but he steps forward to counter the more aggressive action. "Hey," he greets the boars. "Pa erta, yaska." _I won't hurt you, I'm a friend._ "Birka? Hnn-ah-ka?"

The boars look at each other, then the largest one speaks up to the others. "Vraga pa trita. Anis yaska."

_Anis._ That's not one Peter knows, but he speaks up. "Yaska, birka, we're friends. Do you remember us?"

"Naha," the largest boar answers, and the others snuffle and chatter to each other, Peter picking up a few words as they go.

Peter looks to Tony, who sighs. "Come on," he prompts Tony, and heads off behind the boars.

Hnn-ah-ka is as busy as Peter remembers it. None of the boars moving through the square seem to be bothered by their presence, and he's starting to think they remember each reset as well as he and Tony do. The boar party breaks up as they get midway through the square, and the largest advises Peter with a "Ratal," to stay put.

Once they're left alone, besides the passerby boars, Peter speaks. "I think they know."

"They could've warned us," Tony says.

"Maybe they thought we knew." Peter's inclined to think the best of Keith, who was beyond helpful at every point. "I'm starting to think… I dunno."

"What?" Tony prompts.

Peter shifts. "I'm starting to think maybe they sent us there to break it."

Tony looks surprised. "The pigs took us up there – "

"Maybe not because they're super nice, which they definitely kind of are, but if they're stuck in it, and they're scared of the dead bodies in the ship, maybe they need us to do it," Peter babbles out. "Don't you think?"

Tony takes that in. "Maybe," he admits. "And they're not exactly technologically advanced. We still don't know if they remember."

"I think they do," Peter says honestly. "They recognized us. I think."

"We'll see," Tony says, a little guarded.

"Remember, I'm the boar whisperer," Peter jokes weakly.

Tony flashes a smile. "Kid," he says, "this would've been a nightmare without you."

Peter grins, unable to help it, but is surprised out of it at a pointed, "Tra!" from below. He glances down to see a boar looking up at him.

"Tra," he greets, then drops to a knee to look at the boar closer. He puts his hand out experimentally, and the boar nudges against it. His face lights up. "Tony, it's Keith!"

"Naha," Keith insists. "Pa usta, ir erta es – "

"Pratchka, pratchka," Peter says hurriedly. _Stop, stop._ "We'll come with you."

Keith drops his head in a nod and hurries off. Peter glances at Tony before following the boar to a secluded area, dropping to a seat and waiting for Tony to do the same as Keith settles in.

"Usta brast," Keith says, and draws in the dirt again, the circle on top of the line, a line horizontal out from it, then looping back to the figure. "Hnn-ah-ka pa valest."

Tony looks to Peter, who pauses. "Your people," Peter says. "You can't… you can't fix it?" He draws an x through the loop. "Pa valest?"

"Birka," Keith says, and breathes out sharply. "Erta. Trita."

Whatever _trita_ is, it's bad, and it's on their minds a lot. "We can fix it," Peter assures him. "Can you help us get up there again? Go hrata vraga? We did it last – um, usta brast, loop thingy, but I don't think we were as fast as the time you did it."

Keith stands up straight. "Pa usta. Naha."

Peter grins at Tony, who looks incredibly amused. "Let's go!"

"Already?" Tony checks.

"Oh, oh, um, Keith," Peter says hurriedly, nudging him gently with his hand. "There were these birds last time – birds?" He mocks the birds' huge wings. "Erta. Hnn-ah-ka should know."

Keith makes a sound that's unmistakably a sigh. "Erta. Palatka. Loka!"

Peter nods immediately. "We'll keep an eye out," he promises. "We just didn't know… uh, they tasted good, though. Good querta."

"A lot of work," Tony mutters. "Are we going?"

"Naha," Keith agrees, and leads them off to get a cart. The sun is near setting, but none of them care. The hill, the mountains are ahead, and maybe the chance to fix this once and for all.

* * *

It's weird what you can get used to. Like, the mountain trek had seemed nearly impossible the first time, and was pretty stressful the second time, too, but this time it's just a thing that's happening. Peter doesn't mind sleeping on the ground anymore, and curls up against Tony in the night like it's nothing at all. It's probably weird that he likes the way Tony smells, since they haven't been bathing regularly, but it's not like he enjoys the dirt. It's a very human scent in a very inhuman world. He likes it.

One night he's exhausted to the point that he can't fall asleep immediately, his heart pounding. It's complicated, what's getting tangled in his head. He wants to get home, but he also wants to free Hnn-ah-ka from the loop, and he's even more motivated now that he knows he can help someone who isn't himself – but that's pressure, too. The more times they mess up, the more times he's stuck making this trip, the more times the boars have to survive in the same three and a half week loop, unable to make any headway in building or advancing as a people.

He tries to breathe. _You can do this. You're doing great._ Is he? He pauses, trying to let his thoughts rush past without getting caught up, then he feels Tony's heartbeat against his back, his slow breaths, and he tries to breathe along.

He reminds himself of Tony's arms around him, tries to intently feel them, recognize them, and feels himself getting warm.

He needs to take what comfort he can get.

* * *

They make it to the ship in good time, better time than the last time, and Tony's nearly optimistic. It makes Peter smile, genuinely, and they're in a decent mood as they start work. Tony moves to the back of the ship to do some preliminary brainstorming, and Peter pauses to speak to Keith.

"If you want to go, that's okay," he tells the boar gently. "I know it's… it's erta for you. It's scary. I think we'll get it. That or we'll see you next time."

"Querta," Keith says, and his quills bristle. "Anis loka."

Peter pauses. "You'll get food?" He has no clue what the last sentence is about. "We can – " No, there's no point arguing. "Okay. Birka. We'll see you."

Keith snuffles and goes off. Peter troops onto the ship and hurries to find Tony, who's sitting by the pillar, looking grim. "What?" he prompts Tony.

"This isn't just a time ship," Tony says. "It does space, too. If we want to fly it, we'll have to cut off its time function."

"What do we want to do?" Peter returns. "Do we want to fly it? We don't know where we are, how to get back home."

"I get that," Tony says immediately, "but the time function is fucked, Pete."

Peter nods after a pause. "But – I don't know."

"I have to think about this." Tony doesn't seem to like saying that sentence at all. "I don't need that much time. Just… a little time."

"It's okay," Peter says, shaking his head. "I know we're on a schedule, but. You'll get it."

Tony leans back heavily. "You have way too much faith in me, kid."

"Shut up," Peter says, and can't help the disarming smile. "I have just the right amount of faith in you."

"Jesus," Tony complains, but he's half-smiling.

He looks down at Tony, then quickly away, catching himself in something he can't handle right now: a memory, the feeling of Tony's chest against his back, his heartbeat and soft breaths, the so-human scent of him there. He doesn't know what's happening.

He just misses home. That's what it is. Tony's all that he has of home, here.

"So this one time," Tony says out of nowhere, "my dad took me to a Yankees game."

Peter's so startled he doesn't respond right away. "Yeah?"

"I was ten, maybe." He's never seen this look on Tony's face, never this pensive without frustration mixed in. "People recognized us. I kept getting distracted by the people, but my dad said, he said, 'Come on. If you can't be yourself during a Yankees game, when can you?'"

Peter doesn't know what to say to that. "Oh. Um."

Tony eyes him. "Never mind."

He just feels stupid now. "Mr. Stark – "

"The point is, this is more than a baseball game." Tony raises a finger. "Can I ask you a question?"

Peter hesitates. "Sure."

"If I ask a question," Tony adds, "you can ask one too."

Peter sinks down to sit, uncertain. "Go ahead."

"What happened to your parents?" Tony asks, and catches his gaze.

Peter really wants to look away, but he doesn't. "They died. Plane crash."

"I'm sorry." Tony means it. He can tell. "I'm sorry about all the shit you've had to put up with in the last eighteen years."

"I'm okay," Peter says instantly.

"I know I'm the last person who should be teaching this lesson, but it's okay not to be okay about shit," Tony says, to the point but gentle about it. "I got really fucked up about some stuff and it nearly killed me. It's okay to let that stuff fuel you, but… it can't take up space in your head like that."

"It was a while ago." Peter doesn't like thinking about it, because when he does, he gets obsessed with thinking about his mother's face, keeping her memory alive in his head. He forgot his father's face, what it looked like alive and moving in person, a long time ago. "I was just a kid."

"Go ahead," Tony says, his gaze interested. "Ask me one."

Peter gets it now, the look on Tony's face, the story about his dad. This is something real. This is something he needs, that maybe Tony needs too, right now. This is something he has to treasure. It's embarrassing to even think that, but this whole thing is more real than anything he's ever been through. They've earned this.

"Tell me a secret," Peter says finally.

Tony smiles, a real smile, before he laughs off the moment and a serious look crosses his face. "Love is weird. I thought I knew what it was. But I think I missed a chance at it. I have Pepper, don't get me wrong. We're happy. But there was someone else during our break and, I thought, maybe, but I was just… stupid."

Peter smiles. "Love does that."

"Like you'd know," Tony says, at least joking a little.

"I love MJ," Peter says directly. "That's dumb."

Tony sighs. "It's not your fault – "

"I know it's not my fault," Peter cuts him off with, "but I love her anyway. That's the stupid part."

Tony shakes his head. "Did that count?" he checks.

"Did – oh, as a secret?" Peter considers that. "Sort of. You didn't tell me who."

"That's for you to guess at for the rest of your life," Tony informs him.

Peter nudges him with his foot. "Tell me."

Tony pauses. "Even on Earth," he says, "he was a long way away. Maybe never coming back. That's on me. That's on him. I guess it's on both of us."

The word _he_ surprises Peter, but maybe it shouldn't, and maybe it shouldn't lift his spirits a little. "You're happy. That's what matters."

"Yeah," Tony agrees immediately, and pushes himself up. "All right. I'm gonna look around and see if I can come up with anything."

"Okay," Peter says, and rushes to his feet. "Let's get started."

* * *

Peter convinces Tony to eat breakfast outside of the ship with Keith. It's Peter's job, he thinks, to keep things light. The work in the ship is starting to weigh both of them down, and some time just being ridiculous is practically necessary.

"Okay, let's try this," Peter says to Tony. "Tra, yaska."

"Tra, yaska," Tony repeats, after finishing a bite of his leaf and berry sandwich. "What am I saying?"

"Hi, I'm a friend," Peter says, and grins.

"Vraga pa yaska," Keith speaks up, and points at the ship. "Trita Hnn-ah-ka."

Peter pauses. "The aliens in the ship. They weren't friends." This has been something he's been wondering about. "Trita," he repeats, and draws in the dirt: the shape of a boar, then an X through it. "They killed you guys?"

Keith eyes Peter, then draws the circles with vertical lines – Peter recognizes this as the boar sign for _vraga_, people who walk on two legs. Then he draws Xs over their faces, and lines coming off of them. "Vraga trita Hnn-ah-ka. Go hrata, trita. Erta Hnn-ah-ka. Nishka Hnn-ah-ka pest."

Peter takes this in, smiling at the word "go" creeping into Keith's vocabulary, then pauses. "It's the bodies! Tony, they're scared of the bodies."

Tony pauses. "Why – _oh_."

"When you came through the mountains you found the ship and the bodies made you sick," Peter realizes. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know. You're okay, though? Birka?"

"Birka," Keith confirms. "Pa trita. Resta es vraga."

_Resta._ Peter recognizes that one from Keith's assurances going up the mountains. _Safe._ "You're safe," he agrees. "We've got you."

"Typical," Tony says, but he's got that hidden smile on his face. "Making friends everywhere you go."

"You are way overestimating my social life, Mr. Stark." It's only then he realizes he called him _Tony_ just a few seconds ago, but it's probably better not to mention it. It's weird. Isn't it? Maybe it isn't.

It's not like he doesn't respect Tony anymore, or have him up on a pedestal. He knows he does. But Tony is totally different here, or maybe without all the billionaire stuff it's easier to see Tony the actual guy instead of Mr. Stark the unattainably powerful guy. Maybe he can drop the name more. See how it goes.

Tony shifts to stand, and Peter quickly follows. "Let's get going. Big day."

"Yeah." Peter's heart is hammering in his chest as they head into the ship. He wishes they weren't doing this. He's worried. Tony doesn't seem to really understand the way the ship works, and Peter can't blame him for that – it's a totally alien set of mechanics, it's not like either of them have messed around with metal stuff with squishy parts before, or, you know, a time ship – but it's nerve-wracking to not know for sure what's going to happen this cycle.

He realizes as they make their way to the pillar room that he's resigned himself to another cycle. He makes his face have any expression but the hopeless one that threatens to cross his face.

Tony doesn't notice. He slips on the suit and looks to Peter. "I'm going to shut down the pillar," he says. "My theory is that the anomaly in the time aspect of the ship is overpowering the ship's ability to manage space travel. If we kill the pillar, we kill the anomaly, we can get out of here."

"Okay," Peter says immediately, ignoring the sick feeling starting in his stomach. "What can I do?"

"I want you to keep an eye out to see if we get a reaction in the cockpit once I kill the pillar," Tony says.

Peter doesn't like the sound of this all over again. "How are you going to kill the pillar?"

"I have an idea." Tony gestures. "Go on. I'll see you in a minute."

He tries to ignore the feeling in his gut, and hurries out before he can be tempted to say anything about it. He takes a seat in the cockpit and swirls around in the chair a little, not managing to relax at all. It's only a few minutes until he hears the explosion, and he scrambles to his feet and bolts to the back of the ship.

The pillar is crackling when he gets into the room. As he runs down the steps, he spots Tony sprawled on the ground, pieces of his suit sizzling across the room. "Mr. Stark!" No answer. Peter starts to panic. Maybe he's passed out. He triggers the helmet opening after a few tries, and Tony's face is impassive underneath. He shakes Tony pointedly. "Mr. Stark! Wake up!"

Nothing. He slaps Tony across the face in desperation, but nothing happens. Peter's breaths are coming short now, and he dares touch Tony's neck, hoping desperately for his wild fears to be proven wrong.

He can't feel anything. Maybe he's bad at taking pulses. Maybe he just needs to wait. Maybe Tony will wake up if he just waits.

Peter sits there, Tony half in his lap, and waits for what must be hours. Exhaustion threatens him, but he doesn't move, he doesn't sleep, he just waits. When the reality sets in, he blinks away tears, too numb to do anything more than let the grief take gentle hold of him.

He doesn't eat. He sleeps next to Tony's armored body, maybe hoping he's wrong. It's only two days until the reset hits and he's flying, concussed, through the sky again, and a single sob bursts through him in relief before he hits the ground.

He knows the truth now. He knows what he saw on Tony's arm weeks ago. He knows what he has to (but can't) do.


	5. part v.

_ **part v.** _

Things are weird now.

It used to be the trek that was weird. Alien planet, camping, eating weird shitty food. Now that's normal, but the last cycle was weird, and Peter is weird.

The thing is, he died. He remembers dying. He remembers being fried alive in the suit, the horrible pain of the heart attack, the blackness, the nothing, then waking up falling through the red-orange sky. He knows Peter remembers him dead, and that has to explain the dead silence he's getting from the kid as they go.

They find Keith in Hnn-ah-ka and go right away. There's no fun language lessons this time. Peter is dead serious and barely talks.

Tony is worried, but there's no easy way to break that silence. Peter's about as scarred as he is right now, and Tony isn't great at emotional conversations. He's too flippant. It gets to people.

For now, he lets it go. There's time. The kid'll come around.

* * *

Peter finally, actually, talks. They're in the mountains now, and Tony's drifting off to sleep with his arms wrapped around Peter, when the kid speaks up.

"I need to ask you something," Peter murmurs.

Tony blinks to keep himself awake. "What?"

"Have you seen my mark?"

This suddenly feels like a dangerous conversation. "No," he lies.

"I don't believe you." Peter's voice is still soft. "After all this time, you had to've seen it once."

No point arguing that. "What are you getting at?"

He pauses, just for a second or two, before he outright says it. "We match, Tony."

Tony exhales sharply. "Kid."

"I know you think it's stupid." Peter's tone is heartbreaking right now, though Tony couldn't tell you exactly how. It hurts Tony's chest to hear. "But when… when you – " He shakes that off. "Tony, I think it might be real."

Tony is suddenly, acutely aware of the physical contact with Peter, each inch of skin to skin contact. "You know that people can match without _matching_."

"You don't know how it felt." Peter's tone goes accusatory. "When I, I lost you. You don't know, you don't get it."

"There's no way," Tony says directly. "It's just a coincidence."

Peter shifts around in his arms, then, face inches from his, burning with some mix of embarrassment and anger. "You think I'm just being a dumb kid," he whispers. "But I know what I felt. And I know you're married so you don't even want to think about – but – but – fuck."

Tony looks at Peter, and aches. This is a mistake. He needs to move away, tell the kid to relax and rest and put it out of his mind. It's just a teenage crush on an unattainable person. But it's not that simple. It hasn't been that simple for weeks.

"Just do it, kid," he says finally.

Peter leans in and kisses him, and Tony's eyes fall closed. It's a decent kiss, and he likes the feel of Peter's hand against his face, into his hair, but then something happens. A totally alien feeling rolls through him, every inch, every cell, and he keens against it, leaning into each of Peter's kisses now. Guilt tries to press through him, but he wants to touch Peter's skin, he wants to taste every inch of him that he can.

It's still chilly up on the mountain, but they don't care. Peter's ragged robot shirt is hastily discarded so Tony can kiss every bit of skin he can get to, and he pulls off Tony's shirt to touch him, his breaths coming hard at each bit of wet contact of Tony's mouth. He presses his hips into Tony's and tilts his chin up to capture Tony's mouth in a firm, harsh kiss.

Tony's not used to this, definitely didn't expect this, very definitely worries in the back of his head about _holy shit, he's **eighteen**_, but Peter on top of him, pinning him, is _really hot_. He slides his hands down Peter's chest, sides, to his hips, and rolls him closer; Peter's mouth breaks from Tony's to release a groan.

They're both nearly hard right now, and Tony knows he shouldn't, but he wants more than anything right now. As Peter starts to grind against him, he grinds right back, until Peter starts to frantically undo Tony's pants.

"Pete," Tony gets out.

"Shh," Peter says softly, and strokes Tony's cock. It's probably the bond talking, but it feels amazing. He moves down and slips his mouth onto Tony's cock, and he shudders beautifully, the contact of his tongue and lips over the head, the shaft, too fucking good. He moves his fingers into Peter's hair.

"Jesus Christ, you're so good," Tony breathes out, and groans. "Oh, fuck."

Peter keeps at it, and Tony wants to personally thank the original Keith and random kid with the same initials as him for giving Peter the practice, because he's _good_. He can't help it, he starts to move into Peter's mouth, sharp and short at first, then harder, and Peter groans against the contact but doesn't move away; Tony seizes his fingers into Peter's hair and fucks against his mouth, Peter still going at pleasuring him in the midst of it, until he crashes hard into an orgasm and comes into Peter's mouth.

"Fuck," he chokes out.

Peter wipes his mouth and kisses Tony, again and again, his cock rigid in his jeans. "Let me," he whispers. "Let me do it."

"What?" Tony murmurs. He might do anything, right now.

"Let me fuck you. Please, Tony." Peter's eyes are wide, desperate, and despite all his concerns about never, ever having done this before, he thinks he wants it. When he nods, Peter kisses him fiercely, yanking down his own pants to reveal his very hard cock. Tony stares at it, and Peter smiles that smile.

That's the thing. That's what kills him. That smile. That's how he should've known.

Peter spits on his finger and begins to work it into Tony. It's a new feeling, and he has to force himself to relax into it, but it's interesting, especially when Peter works a second one in and works deeper, harder. Tony feels himself moving against the contact, until Peter's breaths are coming harshly, and he says softly, "More."

"Oh my god," rushes out of Peter's mouth, and he kisses Tony hard as he starts to finger him with firmer, sharper motions, until Tony is squirming against him. 

Tony breaks the kiss off and whispers without hesitation. "Do it."

Peter spits again and works it over his cock before pressing his cock slowly into Tony. Tony presses his eyes closed tightly, taking in the feeling of taking in Peter's cock, the incredible fullness of it. He shudders out a breath as Peter stops moving, then Peter whispers, "Okay?"

"Yeah," Tony says, and looks up at Peter, so close, so sweet, so handsome, so incredibly hot in this moment. Peter starts to move, slowly at first, then a little harder each thrust until Tony is moving against him each time to get as much as he can as deep as he can. Ugh, it feels _good_, and Peter is gorgeous on top of him, biting his lip, groaning at the feeling of burying his cock inside him.

"Fuck," Tony gasps as Peter plows into him even harder, hitting something inside of him that makes his toes curl. "Just like that."

"Oh god," Peter manages. "I can't, I can't fucking believe – " He grabs Tony's wrists and pins them down as he presses his eyes closed tightly and fucks Tony so hard he loses himself into the feeling, writhing against Peter, his legs wrapped tightly around his hips to keep him close. When Peter makes a choked sound, Tony shoots his gaze up, then Peter withdraws from him and desperately works his cock to aim his come into the ground.

His heart is racing. He pulls Peter into his arms the second he sinks down, and they curl up together, exhausted and giddy.

"First time okay?" Peter says softly.

"Shut up," Tony offers, not remotely seriously, and presses a kiss to his mouth, still reveling in the skin to skin contact.

This is a problem. But what just happened is real. What they've become to each other over all this time is even more real than that, and it's impossible to deny.

* * *

The bond itself doesn't fade, but the giddy desperation and need for contact does after that first night, which is a relief. They don't have a lot of time to fuck, and Tony thinks they might be able to wait until they have the beds on the ship.

They make it to the ship without incident, and Peter stops him after lunch before they get onto the ship.

"We're not going to fix the ship."

Tony pauses. "What?" he asks.

"Every time you try to fix the ship something bad happens," Peter says steadily. "The ship's causing the anomaly. The ship's the problem, that pillar is self-sustaining, you said it yourself. There's only one way to get back."

Tony absorbs that, and says, "You want to blow it up."

"I do," Peter confirms. "So what do you think?"

He hesitates. "I think there's a chance we can – "

"Tony." Peter sends him a warning look. "The ship is broken, it's ruining this planet and the boar civilization and it's going to keep us here forever. We're not gonna figure out how to fix it in the time we have. Let's blow it up and see what happens. Worst thing that happens is another reset."

Tony hates to admit that this isn't a puzzle he can solve in less than a week, but he did literally kill himself in the effort to do it. If that isn't a wake up call… "Pete," he says after a pause, "there's gotta be another way."

"I know you want to do this the Iron Man way," Peter says, keeping his gaze, "but I don't think that's the game this time."

Tony nods, finally. "Okay. Let's figure out a way. Shouldn't be hard, the fucking thing is broken already."

Peter nods. "I'll warn Keith to keep even more of a distance."

"Cool." Tony sighs and heads into the ship, triggering his helmet as he starts to hunt for something they can set off.

* * *

According to their count, they have three days left in the cycle before the reset. Tony figures it out pretty quickly, though. Tony insists that they gather food just in case this all gets fucked up and they need to survive on the mountain until the reset. Peter just frowns, but the three of them go and find a few days' worth of food without much trouble.

The problem, which Tony only realized after this last look, is that the power grid is partially organic. It looks like it was keyed to some type of creature, who might have been plugged into the grid (permanently? who knows). There was no way to fix it, and there's no way to blow it up from inside.

The time pillar is still going strong, though. He stares at it, withdraws his helmet, and speaks when he hears Peter coming down the steps. "Wish I could bring this back with me somehow," Tony says. "Figure out what it all is."

"Probably can't," Peter reasons. "But you've learned a little about their tech."

"Not as much as I'd like." Tony sighs. "Let's go. Time to fuck it up."

"You're gonna miss the beds, aren't you?"

Tony looks back at Peter. He's got that smile on his face. Goddammit. He glances away, hiding a smile. "Yeah. Come on."

Peter laughs, and heads up the stairs ahead of him, yanking on his mask as he goes. Tony shakes his head at himself as he follows. They look at the ship for a pause, then Tony steadies himself, throwing his helmet back on. After a pause, Tony fires the biggest blast he can manage in this atmosphere at the end of the ship with the pillar, once and again.

There's a blinding flash, and Tony can feel the heat and singe of this explosion right before he lands heavily on cement. He looks up, half-senseless, then sees Dr. Otto Octavius standing over him as he lies right next to the portal ring.

They're in the warehouse. _They're out._ Tony's heart races, then he shouts, "Spider-Man!"

"I'm here, I'm here!" Peter shouts, and swings to kick Octavius into the nearby lab table. Tony watches with surprise as Peter webs up Octavius's face and jumps to attention as Peter shouts, "Tony!"

Octavius growls and rips at the webbing, the arms flailing to try to strike at any of them but failing. Tony strikes without hesitation, a blast at each arm until he's crippled and collapsed on the floor.

"That's it," Tony says sharply. "You lost, Octavius."

"Have I?" Octavius retorts through the webbing.

"Someone's coming," Peter says rapidly; there's the sound of metal clanking through the warehouse, and Tony shifts to face them. As he turns, a weird, tinny sound happens behind him, and as he turns Octavius hits some kind of button on his wrist and vanishes right before his eyes.

"Whoa," Peter says from his spot in front of Tony. "Robots."

Tony looks over. A small army of robots with arms like Octavius's are staring them down now.

"Oh you gotta be kidding me," Tony sighs, and pulls himself together enough to get into a fighting stance. "Fine, let's do this."

After they've blown and webbed up the last of the robots, Peter sinks into a heap on the ground and sighs heavily. "Can I go home?" he says.

Just like that, Tony remembers his list of food he planned to eat once he was back. He pulls Peter to his feet. Peter wraps his arms around Tony's neck, even though he's suited up, and Tony exhales, briefly wrapping his arms around Peter's waist.

"It's gonna be okay, Pete. We're back."

He can't see the smile through the mask, but he knows it's there.


	6. part vi.

_ **part vi.** _

So Peter's back home.

There's food in the fridge and in the cabinets. May catches him just looking at it in the days right after he gets back. She just asks if he's hungry. That's the thing that's weird. Day to day meals of things he actually likes mean he isn't hungry, it means he's not thinking about food all the time, and he spent weeks and weeks just thinking about Kraft mac and cheese and pizza from his favorite spot and a sandwich from the bodega.

He isn't adjusting well to other people, either. Talking to Ned is weird and he couldn't explain why if he was asked. There's only one person he really wants to talk to.

Tony won't talk to him. Tony won't answer his calls, and Happy says Tony's busy, so he can't get up to the lab. It hurts physically after a while. He remembers kissing Tony, that incredible rush, the feel of his skin, the taste of his cock and the way it twitched in his mouth. Peter wants him. Everything about him. He misses him.

Peter calls again, ready for the voicemail, rehearsed this in his head.

"We need to talk, Tony. Please call me back. Please don't do this."

He looks at his phone. It's time to go to school. It's time to pretend that none of this happened.

Oh, it hurts.

* * *

Tony needs to get his shit together.

He's been through a lot in the last decade or so. Life was nominally easy – he's been able to get whatever he wants with a snap of his fingers – but a lot of horrible shit came up, and he dealt with it. This whole thing is new. Everything is new again.

Spending time with Pepper feels as alien as the planet once had. Dinner at restaurants is surreal. He spends a lot of time in the lab, working on old projects, mind occasionally wandering to alien circuits with organic help. He doesn't know how to explain it to Pepper, to anyone.

Finally, Rhodey visits. Tony glances up from the suit and straightens. "Hey."

"Hey," Rhodey says easily, and rests against the nearby table. "I was planning to visit anyway, but you should probably know Pepper sent me this time."

"Yeah, I figured," Tony says. "So, what, what's the deal?"

Rhodey shrugs. "Everyone who knows you knows you're acting weird. I'm here to ask you what's up."

Tony shrugs. "I spent months on an alien planet trying to survive," he decides on. "Then I came back five seconds after I left, and it's like none of it happened."

Rhodey's eyebrows raise. "Jesus," he says. "Why haven't you – "

"Told Pepper? I was getting to it." Tony shifts. "It was weird. I'm… you know, getting used to being back."

"You gotta tell Pepper, man," Rhodey says directly. "She's worried."

It's more than just the planet. It's Peter. But he doesn't think he can tell Pepper about that. He doesn't know what happens when you tell your wife you bonded with an eighteen year old, and he isn't sure he wants to know. Maybe it's for the best that he pretends that none of it happened.

"I'll talk to her," Tony promises. "So, you gotta tell me what happened with that girl you were seeing."

"Oh, of course you're deflecting on me," Rhodey shoots back, but he's laughing. "Who, Clara? Yeah, she's nice."

"Is she hot?" Tony returns.

"Of course she's hot." Rhodey grins. "And smart."

"Important shit," Tony says with a smirk. "Good work."

They shoot the shit while Tony works for a few hours, then Tony goes home. Pepper's watching TV, and he takes a seat next to her.

"I was trapped on an alien planet," he says, ignoring the documentary she's watching. "I'm… readjusting."

"I see." Pepper touches his hair. "I'm glad you're back."

"Yeah," Tony says. There's a knot in his throat and a tension in his stomach. He knows what he needs to do, but he can't do it. He can't hurt her like that. "Pepper?"

"Yes," she answers, and offers a small smile.

The words won't come out, but they need to. He takes it slow. "I… found my soulmate."

Pepper's expression barely changes, and that's a sign in and of itself. "You did."

"Yeah." Tony feels something awful coming, the knots in his throat and chest tightening. "I love you, Pepper. You know that."

Pepper nods after a pause. "Do you want to leave?" she asks.

"No," he says instantly. "God, no."

"But you bonded with someone," she figures. "And you're going to stay with me?"

"I don't have to..." He doesn't know how to say it. "I don't have to be with him."

Pepper shakes her head at him, half-laughing, not very amused. "Don't be stupid, Tony."

"I want to be with you," Tony says firmly.

"I can't believe I'm the one who has to explain this to you." Pepper strokes his hair again. "You're Tony Stark. You get everything you want."

He pauses, taking that in. "Are you saying – "

"Yeah," Pepper says, now wearily amused. "Figure it out. I'm here. I made that promise."

Tony kisses her, then. It doesn't have that electricity of the bond, but it's Pepper, and that's what matters right now.

The next day, he texts Peter. _Come to the lab._ He archives the last voicemail, not ready to listen to it, not ready to delete it.

Peter looks at him across the lab, and Tony sets aside his tools. There's a pause that's stupidly full of meaning, then Peter walks the hundred or so feet between them and touches Tony's face. Tony's eyes fall closed, and he's ready when Peter kisses him with fierce desperation. _I missed you._ He feels it in Peter's touch and pressure of his mouth, and he feels it himself.

But goddamn, it escalates. Peter steers him into a chair and straddles him, kisses heavy against his mouth, his neck, and Tony grabs his ass firmly. Peter slips his hand against Tony's cock and strokes him through his pants, before undoing his belt and pants to push his hand inside and grip.

Anyone could walk in. Tony doesn't care. He ignores all of the horrible doubts his brain throws at him, thoughts that he's just a kid, barely legal, _a guy_, because it's what he wants, so much. He moans into Peter's mouth as Peter works his cock and thrusts his own cock against Tony's thigh, then breathes once they break, "Fuck me."

Peter's breath hitches, and he immediately moves, pulling Tony to his feet. He pushes Tony down against the desk and yanks his pants firmly down, starting to work his fingers into his ass with a harsh and hot desperation until Tony groans, "Pete, _please_."

His cock presses deep inside Tony, whose knees nearly buckle. He grips the desk as Peter starts to move inside him, until the desk is rattling from each heavy thrust and Tony is biting into his hand to fight back moans. "Fuck," he gasps.

"Oh my god, Tony," Peter pants, grasping at Tony's cock to work it hard. Tony groans at the contact and thrusts against his hand, rattling the desk even further. Peter strikes at his prostate again and again and Tony's vision goes white as he comes all over Peter's hand.

Peter grunts desperately and thrusts harder and harder into Tony until he groans and comes inside of him, collapsing against Tony.

"Fuck," Peter whispers.

"You know," Tony murmurs, still face-first in the table, "I asked you here to talk."

Peter's tone is heartbreaking all over again. "I just missed you."

Tony smiles to himself. "I missed you too, kid. Now get up, I gotta clean up."

Peter laughs, and moves away from Tony to fix his pants. Tony loves the sound. Maybe they can figure this out.

* * *

At first it was weird being in the bed at Tony's place. It was Tony and Pepper's bed. The whole place was Tony and Pepper's. Now it's… not. After having sex about every other day on… a lot of different surfaces of the place, it's not feeling lke his, but it's not feeling like it isn't, either.

He's happy, that's the thing. He decides he has to tell someone. He can't tell May, not yet. He hasn't figured out how to, in a way that won't make her freak out. He couldn't have told her about Keith, he can't tell her about Tony.

He decides on Ned instead.

Ned just stares at him once he's done telling the story. "You're Tony Stark's soulmate," he repeats.

"Yeah," Peter says, a little on edge.

"Like, you _bonded_," Ned says, apparently trying to absorb this. "With Tony Stark?"

"Yeah." This is about what he expected: shock, and not good reactions.

"He's like fifty," Ned points out after a pause.

"I know." Peter smiles carefully. "Ned, I promise, it's okay."

Ned pauses. "Are you _sure_ that this wasn't some kind of – " 

"I'm sure he didn't manipulate me into thinking there was a bond or something like he's some kind of weird pedo," Peter cuts him off with, sighing. "He was scared to even agree it was happening. He knows it's weird."

Ned nods finally. "But you're okay," he checks.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Peter promises. "I'm… I'm happy, Ned."

"Good," Ned concludes. "God, I can't believe you're _Tony Stark's_ soulmate. That's insane."

"Good insane or bad insane?" Peter checks.

"Maybe both?" Ned hazards. "Is he gonna be your sugar daddy or something?"

"I don't know," Peter confesses. "That might be weird. I know he's rich, but…"

"If he, like, loves you, he'll give you stuff," Ned supposes. "Whenever you guys get there or whatever."

The idea makes Peter unexpectedly warm. "Yeah. Anyway, that's the thing."

"God." Ned's still taking this in. "Uh. Do you want to watch BSG or something?"

"Oh yeah," Peter says, perking up. "Let me put it on."

"Awesome," Ned says, and claps him on the shoulder. "Thanks, dude."

"No problem," Peter says, laughing. "I love seeing robots I don't have to fight!"

* * *

It's been three months since they escaped the cycles on the planet, and, besides the soulmate thing, things are getting back to normal.

Tony's nestled against Peter after a bout of rough sex with some handcuffs involved. It's still weird. He still doesn't know what he's doing sometimes. The kid is wonderful, though, even without the sex. But the sex is great.

"Tony," Peter murmurs.

Tony can feel his heartbeat under his chest. "What?"

"I love you."

The words stop him dead. He focuses on Peter's heartbeat for a second or two, then he thinks of Peter's stupid, sweet smile, the one that wrecks him every time and has for months.

"Yeah," Tony says finally. "I love you too."

"Oh," Peter says, a strange, strained sort of sound, then he tilts Tony's head up and kisses him soundly, sweetly, nearly chaste.

"I just," Tony starts after, and sighs. "It's just the goddamn _age_, Pete."

"I don't care about age," Peter says softly. "I like older guys."

"You like older guys," Tony repeats.

Peter laughs. "Keith was forty-three," he says. "And it was hot."

"Jesus," Tony whispers. "You were how old fucking a forty-three year old guy?"

"Seventeen," Peter whispers back. "And now I'm eighteen fucking a forty-nine year old. And it's still hot."

"Goddammit," Tony says, rubbing a hand over his face. "I can't believe this."

"Believe it." Peter presses a kiss to his cheek. "I'm eighteen. I'm yours. I'm here to stay."

Tony smiles, and gets that smile in return, the one that makes his doubts fade even for a little bit.

He knows, now. There's no going back.

* * *

Four months in, Peter finally has the guts to talk to Pepper. He lets himself in – he's had an access key for months now – and she's sitting and reading on a couch near the entrance.

"Hey," he says, and clears his throat.

"Hey," Pepper echoes, and glances up.

"I just wanted to – " No, that's not the way to do it. "I wanted to thank you. For understanding."

"Peter." Pepper sets aside her book. "You know this is… unconventional."

"Um, yeah," Peter agrees instantly.

"But we both love him," she says patiently, "and he loves both of us. I believe that."

"Yeah," he says, tone going quieter.

Pepper catches his gaze again. "So why would I hurt him by making him lose you?" she says. "Why would you do that to someone you love?"

"You wouldn't," Peter answers, trying his best to not look away.

"Everything's fine," Pepper says, with a note of finality. "And if or when it's not… I won't hold it against you, okay? It's not your fault."

"Because I feel like a homewrecker sometimes," bursts out of Peter's mouth.

"Stop," Pepper suggests. "You didn't plan this."

"Not at all." The entire thing was the opposite of planned. "So. We're. Okay?"

"Yes," Pepper says, and offers a small smile. "He's in the bedroom."

"Okay," Peter says, still a little ill at ease but ready to see Tony. Tony's sitting in bed with a tablet, and Peter knocks at the doorframe to get his attention. "Hey."

"Oh, hey," Tony greets him.

Peter moves to sit on the bed, and watches as Tony finishes what he was doing on the tablet. He catches Tony's hand and drops a kiss on his wrist, an instinctive affection.

"Everything's fine," he murmurs.

Tony smiles at the gesture, and opens his mouth to speak when he sees something on the tablet that makes him tense. Then Pepper shouts, "TONY!" from the other room, and he calls back, "Yeah, I see it!"

Pepper's in the room within seconds. "You're not going to – "

"We're going," Tony says flatly, and pushes himself out of bed. "Come on, kid."

"What are we doing?" Peter asks, his heart already racing.

"Suit up," Tony says. "Something big is going down in the city. Something alien."

Peter should have known; he shouldn't have said what he said. But he's ready, more than ready. He pulls on his suit, glances at Pepper, and says, "We'll be back."

"I know," Pepper says, wearing a small smile with a small doubt.

Now Tony's ready and suited up. "Let's go."

"Yeah," Peter says, and steels himself. They make their way outside, and Tony flies them off, to battle, to risk, to duty.


End file.
